Miracles? What Miracles?

Miracles. What are they? Have you ever seen one? What does it look like?

I am having a lot of trouble lately, defining a miracle. Heaven knows, I am in need of one!

The New Testament is full of stories of miraculous signs and wonders. Jesus healed so many people from the time of his baptism to the time of his death and Resurrection. There were people with leprosy, people who were lame, or blind or deaf and mute. There were those who were bed-ridden, on death's door. Not only did he heal, he brought the dead back to life. If he wasn't dealing with people's health issues, he was feeding multitudes, using a fish as a change purse, turning water into the choicest wine and assisting fishermen with their catch of the day. There was no shortage of miracles in the Old Testament either.

I have no trouble believing who God is. Every day I am so glad that I am one day closer to spending eternity with Him. I know every word of scripture to be true. I have heard of miracles taking place in countries where Christians are mercilessly persecuted and tortured to death. The common thread in these lives is the joy they have because they are persecuted, and, the miracles that they have witnessed which fuels their fire to keep the gospel truth alive.

So where is God in North America? Where are the miracles that the prairie farmers need? I believe to the core of my being that God can restore the hog industry, as He can the entire economy. So why isn't He? And if He is, when? Not to mention, would we notice that it was because of Him that restoration has taken place?

Again I say,
"Lord, I have heard of your fame, I stand in awe of your deeds, O God. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known." Habakkuk 3:2

Ok. well, you've heard all that blather before - I've written and prayed it so many times.
So what am I missing?

Matthew 11:20
"Then Jesus began to denounce the cities in which most of His miracles had been performed because they did not repent."

Hmm....
I wonder if we would know a miracle if we saw one!

The people of Jesus' day fell in two categories - those who believed in Him before the miracle happened, and those who did not believe in spite of His miracles.

The first set of people sought Jesus out because they had heard of His fame and believed that he could heal them. they had faith first and then they were healed.

The second set of people; the people Matthew 11:20 speaks of, never felt compelled to come to the saving grace of Jesus Christ - no matter what sort of miracle Jesus pulled out of his hat! It is this set of people that makes me wonder if we would even notice a miracle as anything remarkable. And if it was in fact remarkable, would we just rubber-neck and star-gaze?

How many times do we give everything around us credit for the workings of our world? If we are in remission from cancer, we thank the doctors. If our business is successful we chalk it up to good money management. If we have a good family life, we say we are good parents. We rely on lawyers, doctors, universities, full grocery store shelves, our jobs and ultimately, ourselves, far sooner than we rely on our Great God.

How can God compete with that, when we see ourselves as having everything under control, to the point of not even being able to recognize a miracle as exactly that? No matter what seems to hit the evening news, we would find a logical way to explain the phenomenon or, if it was a truly odd occurrence, we would wonder at the validity of it. We have gone so far to strip Jesus of the miracles he performed, that there are prominent bible colleges which actually teach the "logics" of them!

I am not entirely dumbfounded at the state our country is in. Not because God had given me any sort of revelation - in fact, I'm quite sure I have missed or explained away any number of miracles!

I just wonder how closely we would fit the description in Matthew 11:20