I'm disturbed by the number of people who talk about God as a miracle worker. I believe in the miracles of the Bible. I believe that he is capable of doing miracles today. But I do not believe the majority of His work is done by miracles——it is done today by process. All that He does has wonder and awe, but I am leery of those that use miracle in the sense of "I am special." Misguided young people are forever telling me that they've had two miracles in the morning and expect another one this afternoon.
On the other hand, we have those who believe that everything can be done by devotion. By that I mean a verse of scripture and a prayer. For some reason, people come to me who are in trouble and have for as long as I can remember and I'm always to help them. But I find many of them are very surprised that I don't give them verses of scripture and prayers. I believe in devotion. I practice devotion. But I do not believe that we can solve basic problems in that way. I've heard people get a certain pious tone in their voice saying, "Dear brother, when in trouble read Job and I'll put you on my prayer list." I don't believe in that. I believe that problems should be analyzed and answers found. A sad example is a friend who has stomach trouble. His wife is a Christian scientist and has taken his pills away from him because she plans to cure his stomach with devotions. He happens not to be a Christian scientist and I'm afraid that he's going to have serious trouble.
The danger of miracle is that it's egocentric. The danger of devotion is that it is denial and escape. Both of these are asking for the product without the process.
The mature view of process we find illustrated in scripture.
1. We are positioned in grace - through faith - we share the glory of God by grace through faith.
2. Rejoice in suffering — fiery trials will come. We don't rejoice in anticipation, but in participation. Paul rejoiced that he shared in the sufferings of Jesus.
3. Suffering brings endurance - my mother who brought five boys out of the slums, would say at our family devotion time, "be not weary in well doing, for in due season you shall reap if you faint not." She was tired. She was doing all her own work. She was not well. But she was determined that it was good to bring her boys out of the slums. Let me say to you mothers: she paid a price for that but she didn't have to pay any higher price than some of you are having to pay to raise normal, healthy, Christian children in today's affluent society. There is a great new phrase going around — "affluenza." Endurance is not measured by a balance sheet.
4. Character comes from endurance - it didn't say personality. God isn't interested in building our personality, but in our core person's being conformed to His Son.
5. Hope - that quality that permits my theological friend to say to me when he gets ready to hang up, "hang tough, hang in there, babe."
6. Ultimate object of hope: unconditional love.
The process is from grace through faith to love. Not a bad place to spend time!
