Now, look, the Lord’s hand is against you. You are going to be blind, and will not see the sun for a time.” Immediately a mist and darkness fell on him, and he went around seeking someone to lead him by the hand. — Acts 13:11 (CSB)
My 9 year old and I read Acts 13 the other morning and obviously this verse was what he remembered later from that passage. “Paul told a guy that he was going to go blind” he told his mom an hour later.
We are always impressed by the supernatural whether it has positive or negative results. The portions of the Bible filled with miracles are more excited to read than the more mundane histories.
Life can be like that too. We can yearn for something thrilling to happen to break up the monotony of everyday life. We want God to speak in a lightning strike, to provide water out of a rock and heal the sick in front of us.
God is able to do those things but he doesn’t seem to very often.
Why is that? What is God’s goal in our lives?
I think he’s after faith. He wants us to trust him, follow him and keep going even when life is just the ordinary grind.
If we saw miracles right and left it would become ordinary for us and we’d settle into that being monotonous. The Israelites certainly did this when they were being led by a pillar of smoke by day and of fire by night!
God knows that if we’re constantly seeing the miraculous then it won’t help our faith. I believe he has engineered just the right amount of trials, blessings and persecutions in order to trigger a decision in us.
“Will I continue in faith?” Is the question that our circumstances puts to us every day.
Obviously we can and should still ask God to work on our behalf. We should pour out our concerns and requests to him because he cares about us and responds to our faith filled prayers.
We just shouldn’t pout when God doesn’t reply to our prayers with a boom of thunder. God has spoken clearly through his word. He has given us what we need to trust him today.
Let’s go after today in faith. God knows what he has in store for us.