God Doesn’t Have to Prove Himself
Luke 4:14-30 – How many times have you said, “I’ll believe it when I see it,”? I’ve certainly said it a few times, and occasionally God factors in somewhere. Luke gives us an example in Chapter 4. Jesus had been teaching and performing miracles, and in verse 16 he enters his home town of Nazareth. He goes into the synagogue, reads Is. 61: 1,2, tells them he is the fulfillment and sits down. They’ve heard about his teaching and healing elsewhere, but they want to see it for themselves and run him out of town because he won’t “perform” for them.
At times our prayer lives can look similar to this. We plead with God for some kind of miracle: healing, guidance, deliverance, blessing to seemingly no avail. Sometimes Jesus will not perform a miracle that we desire or pray for no matter how much we pray if that miracle determines our level of faith or commitment. We cannot expect Jesus to perform a miracle in order to for us to believe in him, commit to him, or live obediently. We must accept him for who he says he is no matter the outcome of our prayers.
In Luke chapter 5, Jesus performs a miracle unrequested and seemingly insignificant. He surprises and blesses Peter and his partners with an abundance of fish in their nets. Why? Was he proving himself to them where he refused to prove himself to the people of Nazareth? Maybe this was Peter’s job interview before becoming a disciple, the lead disciple. Peter had to obey first before he saw the miracle.
Yes, He is the God who preforms miracles (Psalm 77:14), but He gets to decide when, where, and how.
from my notebook 