“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.” – Albert Einstein
Miracles. We’ve heard about them. We want them. We want to believe in them.
I’m sure if you asked random people on the street to say the first thing that comes to their minds when they hear the word “miracle,” more than one would say the name “Jesus” – whether they believe He is the Son of God or not.
My heart aches for those who don’t know the Lord. Sometimes I just wish the Lord would do some great miracle that was so unmistakably clear it was His doing that people who didn’t believe would put their faith in Christ.
I was reading in the book of John, and this verse jumped out at me:
“Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.” – John 7:43
And that’s when I realized how much nothing’s really changed. Aren’t people still divided because of Christ?
Even the physical presence of Jesus performing miracles in His time did not lead to everyone who witnessed those miracles to believe in Him.
They excused him as a prophet. They accused him of blasphemy by proclaiming he was God’s Son.
“Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him.” – John 12:37
Jesus was standing right in front of these people. He performed big miracles right before their eyes… Yet they still didn’t believe.
And that’s what a realization hit me:
I can pray for people to come to know Christ, I can share my own faith in Him, but even if I gathered all the evidence in the world that supports that Jesus lived and died and was, in fact, the Son of God… even if every person on this earth experienced some miracle from God for themselves… and even if Jesus himself was standing right in front of them in plain sight, when it comes down to it, it takes a step of faith for someone to believe.
I listened to a great sermon online from FBC Midlothian where my aunt and uncle attend. In a series called “What If,” the preacher said something along the lines of:
“Gather the evidence you can. But at some point, you will have to make a step of faith.”
I think back to that story in the Bible where even Thomas, one of Jesus’s twelve disciples, needed to see the actual marks in Jesus’s hands after he rose again in order to believe that He was Lord.
“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” – John 20:25
Jesus later came to Thomas and said,
“Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Stop doubting and believe.” – John 20:27
Thomas immediately believed and proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28) to which Jesus responded:
“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” – John 20:29
Isn’t it time we stop doubting and start believing?
