Instant Miracles (The Shield of Faith)

Do you believe in magic?

How often did you hear that as a child? I'm a huge fan of magical everything Harry Potter, Houdini, and bibbity bobbity. I love the thought of magic. Today, I started thinking about how so many people think about God like a magician. It's an interesting image, no doubt; a great magician in the sky, orchestrating the world with a white tipped wand and a dramatic flare. The Bible speaks so much of miracles performed by God and Jesus that awed thousands--walking on water, parting the red sea, the healing of the blind and leprous... Miracles of great power that testified to the Lord's strength.

We walk through life as Christians so often praying for miracles. We've been trained since Sunday School to expect miracles. I think there are times when we think acts of God are something we can stick into the microwave and "Pop!Pop!Ding!" there's a plate full of Instant Miracle.

Believe me, I've been praying for a packet of the Instant stuff for months. I'm a walking medical mystery right now, of course I'm praying for a bolt of white light to hit me and suddenly I'd be walking through life in perfect health.

So far the white light hasn't hit me.

It's been a real struggle, trying to understand why I am facing this ongoing battle. It would be easy to give up on God and let myself believe that it's me against the world. It is so easy to sit there and say, "What proof do you have that God exists...that He cares?"

This is the premise of faith. Faith is the cornerstone of Christianity. It is the seed through which our relationship with God grows, the vine from which His blessing reaches us.

I think that being taught to expect EPIC miracles can make faith fragile. After all, think of the every day miracles God grants us that we take for granted...food, water, family... Instead we want to see the mountains move in an instant. We have to see the miracles before our very eyes. Of course we want to see God feed thousands and heal the blind, but only believing something you can see is the exact opposite of faith.

What is Faith?

Hebrews 11:1 reads that "Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see."

That's right. Faith has nothing to do with seeing an act of God. Faith is having confidence in the Lord, in trusting that He is real and has our lives in His hands.

Let me tell ya, this wasn't the easiest concept for me to grasp. I like hard, strong facts. I want proof in front of me, and Faith just doesn't work like that. It feels like the world is always against me and that there is no grand plan for me. It feels like miracles don't exist and that I'm drowning in trouble and exhaustion.

What answers does the Bible have for that? What does Faith have to do with misery?

Quite a lot, actually.

The Struggle is Real

Remember that it is Satan's goal to kick us out of God's hands and into Hell on Earth. He does this through making war in our lives. Pain, suffering, that's all Satan's doing. And why does God let us go through that? Shouldn't He just miracle our life to happiness?

Well, He could. But God never promised life would be easy. He promised to take care of us. In 1 Corinthians 10:13 He assures us that, "No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it."

Notice it says endure. We grow through struggle, in strength and in faith. He does not coddle us. God walks beside us, but like every parent He wants us to grow.

It also says God has given us a way out, a way to endure. What could that possibly be? I still don't have those super powers to face off with Satan, and I don't see an emergency escape hatch.

Guess what? That way to endure is through Faith.

The Shield of Faith

I'm skipping around the order of the armor pieces, but Faith is part of it. Ephesians 6:16 says, "In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one."

It makes since if you think about it. Faith is our connection to God. Satan wants to sever that connection. Naturally, that connection can also be used to protect us from Satan. There's a reason he wants it severed, after all. In this age, it's easy for him to do that. The world is Satan's playground. He will use anything in it to sever our connection to God.

We live in the modern age, where science tries to explain everything. For a long time, science has tried to disprove God's existence. It has tried to explain everything through Laws and tried to make the universe something humanity can understand and change. And yet, science cannot explain everything. It cannot explain what created this universe, or what created the laws science abides by. It cannot explain emotion or why humans have conscious thoughts.

The Power of Faith

These facts should strengthen our Shield of Faith. We cannot walk through life and expect no adversity, not when the greatest of enemies is at our doorstep. But we can walk with God, shielded through faith.

I'm not saying that the BIG miracles don't happen. They do. We hear the stories all the time about people waking from comas, people saved in the most astounding ways from accidents, we hear about the mysterious healings and unexplainable events. But they don't happen all the time. We don't always need the BIG miracles. Sometimes we need only the power of Faith, and the strength it gives us.

The power of Faith is awesome. It can shield us from Satan while also bringing us closer to God. And God rewards the faithful. The book of Matthew has several accounts of Jesus healing those faithful to him. He promised his disciples that their faith in him could force a mountain to jump into the sea (Matthew 21:21) and that through belief their prayers would be answered. (Matthew 21:22)

An Instant Miracle would be nice, but Instant Miracles are probably like most microwave meals. The Instant stuff may fill you up for a time, but they aren't the most nutritious so to speak. You don't grow stronger or healthier eating the Instant, and when it comes to Faith, you don't develop a tested and true relationship with God, and you don't gain strength against the Enemy's onslaught. And you're usually hungry for more an hour later, am I right?

So have Faith and know that your struggles are not empty or trivial.Faith moves mountains. Faith protects us from the arrows of Satan. Faith is what gets us through the struggles and the pain. Through Faith God makes us stronger. Iron is forged through fire, and so are we.

“To learn strong faith is to endure great trials. I have learned my faith by standing firm amid severe testings.” ~ George Mueller