1743 Between the Miracles

Are you continually needing a sign from God to keep your faith? Do you quickly start to doubt when there doesn’t seem to be anything mystical and magical happening for you?

Jesus’ disciples were that way. They would have a front row seat to a divine miracle, then walk into the next problem forgetting what they had already witnessed. Jesus had proven his power among them, yet the next moment they were still freaking out. With great patience, Jesus teaches them to trust him between the miracles.

Isn’t that where you are? You’re just between the miracles.

Girl, you have seen God work in your life before. He’s gotten you through impossible things. He’s supernaturally guided your steps on a path you couldn’t see and it’s the only possible explanation for how you got here today. Without him, you would have never made it, and you know it.

But now you’re waiting on that next miracle. You’re here where things have gotten quiet and nothing seems to be happening. You don’t see God working. You don’t feel him moving. You haven’t heard him speaking. So now, you’re kind of wondering … God, are you going to do something here? Do you see what’s happening? Have you heard my prayers? Do you care about me still?

When you face the next problem, do you forget what God did for you with the last problem? Do you suddenly get spiritual amnesia, discounting the personal experience you’ve already had with the miraculous ways of God? When you forget, you freak out. And when you freak out, you leave no room for faith.

You see, faith and ‘freak out ‘require the same space. When your faith grows, your ‘freak out’ has no where left within you and it must leave. However, when your ‘freak out’ increases, your faith is left without a place to reside. Seriously, have you noticed how your faith journey has you so much calmer? Have you noticed you are responding so much better than you used to? Girl, those thoughts of yours are getting so much better! That’s what faith does!

And sometimes we go through our ‘freak out’ phase where we stress and worry and make everything worse in our head. Yes, where we miss all we already have and all we could do, because we’re hype focused on what we don’t have and what we can’t do.

But, Jesus is so patient with us, knowing it takes time and experience for faith to grow. So, he keeps letting us see his power at work so we learn to trust him. Then, just like when you were learning to ride a bike as a little girl, at some point the training wheels are taken off and you’re practicing balancing on your own.

This space between the proof of God’s power at work in our lives is where we’re learning to balance our faith. With practice, one day you won’t have to continually SEE God working to just know that he is. You won’t have to ask for proof of miracles to know you’re surrounded by the miraculous. You won’t freak out, you’ll naturally respond in faith. And that’s how God is growing each of us.

Jesus’ disciples were on this same journey, and we see them fail. In Mark 6, we read about a crowd of thousands of people gathering to hear Jesus teach, and Jesus decides he wants to feed the crowd. The only problem is, there’s not enough food for all these people. In fact, the only food in this crowd of thousands was the lunch of one boy, 5 loaves of bread and 2 small fish. We’re talking crackers and sardines here, my friends.

And Jesus takes inventory, then says to his disciples, “You feed them.”

Then, something miraculous happens. Jesus begins breaking what little there is, handing it to the disciples to distribute among the crowd of thousands. And every time the disciples return to gather more to take out to the crowd, Jesus still has more food to give from the 5 loaves & 2 small fish. When everyone had eaten all they could, Jesus instructs the disciples to gather the leftovers, and they returned with 12 baskets full. What was left over was far greater than what they began with.

There was no denying this miracle. It was huge, it was unbelievable, and the disciples were personally involved in it. WOW! Imagine being there. Imagine seeing that. Imaging experiencing this supernatural supply.

Then, 2 chapters later, something truly crazy happens. Mark 8, another large crowd gathers to hear Jesus teach. After 3 days, the crowd runs out of food. Jesus looks at his disciples once again and says in verse 2, “I feel sorry for these people. They have been here with me for 3 days, and they have nothing left to eat. If I send them home hungry they will faint along the way. For some of them have come a long distance.”

Now, check out the disciples response! Verse 4, “His disciples replied, ‘How are we supposed to find enough food to feed them out here in the wilderness?”

This is essentially a freak out. Jesus, how? This is impossible! This is ridiculous! We can’t do this!

Y’all, it’s literally just 2 chapters after they have been in this exact situation and seen Jesus EASILY provide, but they’ve already forgotten.

And isn’t this us? How quickly do we forget what God has already done for us and relapse into our freak out over the next problem heading our way? Here, in between miracles, God wants our faith to grow so we learn balance.

God’s girls cannot continue this wobbly, freak-out nature where we constantly lose our crap over things not going our way. Hasn’t God already been faithful enough to prove we can trust him? Haven’t we already seen his hand at work in the details enough to prompt our faith in his hand with these details now?

You’re in between miracles because the training wheels are being taken off. Not because God isn’t working, but because God is working to watch your faith grow. Faith that no longer demands the next miracle as proof, but faith that wakes up knowing God already has it taken care of.

I have to believe Jesus allowed the second crowd and the complete lack of food all over again to check the balance of his disciples. Were they ready for the training wheels to be taken off? Would they respond to the problem with faith, or would they freak out. I think Jesus was wanting them to see the hungry crowd and say, “Jesus, here’s what little bread we have, we know you’ll do something unbelievable with it!”

But they didn’t. They failed. They freaked out.

But, what did Jesus do? He took what little there was, and he once again made it more than enough. Jesus didn’t just leave them to fail, he nurtured their faith again.

Now, you have to read what happens next. After Jesus feeds the second crowd miraculously, he and his disciples get in a boat and go to their next destination. As soon as they arrive, the Pharisees come out and start arguing with Jesus. They were testing him, demanding that he show them a miraculous sign from heaven to prove his authority. Verse 12, “When Jesus heard this, he sighed deeply in his spirit and said, ‘Why do these people keep demanding a miraculous sign?'”

It literally grieves Jesus when we demand the next sign. We’ve already seen enough to prompt our faith.

Girl, you are ready to lose the training wheels on your faith and ride in freedom! Jesus has steadied your faith time and time again. You don’t have to have the next miraculous sign to keep going … that’s for an absence of faith.

You’ve already seen God at work. You already know he’s gotten you through some impossible things. You’ve already seen his hand of provision. And you can have complete faith that his hand is still with you now, he’s still getting you through, and he’s still working all things together for good.

That’s faith … God, I don’t have to see miraculous proof of it here again today because you’ve already proven your faithfulness. I already know you’ll take what isn’t enough and make it more than enough, because I’ve seen you do it before.

There’s no reason to freak out, my friend. This growing faith within you is crowding out the freak out.

If you’re in between miracles, just know it’s because God is trusting you to find balance here in faith.

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