Is God Your Personal Magician, Or Your Savior?

And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?”

And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”

And Mary said, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her. Luke 1:34-38

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. Philippians 4:5-6

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:14-16

If there lurks in most modern minds the notion that to desire our own good and earnestly to hope for the enjoyment of it is a bad thing, I submit that this notion has crept in from [philosophers like] Kant and the Stoics and is no part of the Christian faith. Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

-C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

I find that we are constantly bombarded by the Prosperity Movement, (I initially wrote that as ‘moment’. I wonder if a little prophecy was trying to get out of my brain), the thought that God is interested our getting more and more wealth out of this world. Anytime I see this I think of a quote from Dr. E.V. Hill (from 1985, mind you), “Those who are busy across our nation suggesting that God came into this world to give us this world’s goods must take another look at the one who came into this world who had no where to lay His head. God has something better than houses and land, silver and gold.” This isn’t to say that people can’t have wealth. Jesus even says we should work and live while we can: So Jesus said to them, “The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going. While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.” John 12:35-36

So no matter where we are, we are not ever disqualified from God’s goodness. However, miracles aren’t a pill or a silver bullet that, as C.S. Lewis says, “restores the status quo.” They are a rare, powerful, mysterious movement of God that we can neither take responsibility nor credit for and may change our lives forever. In fact, most times miracles happen, our hope, our trust in God is waning, or even to the point of falling off a cliff in our hearts, about to become a river of bitterness.

With all of this in mind, how should we think of miracles? We should ask, ask, ask, without fear. It’s in the demand, in the, “come on, God! I haven’t asked for anything! Let’s go!” or, “We’re expecting a miracle for this. God loves us and will give us what we want and ask.” I’m so disillusioned by people that will do something and leave the consequences to God. This is where God gets negated, because if he’s just a magician, pumping out the miracles, he’s not God anymore, he’s just a weak little error-prone fixer. Faith doesn’t exist because at a certain point, you either believe, or you don’t because all you have to do is ask.

Another point is that God has nothing to prove. He didn’t to the Pharisees and I’m sorry, he doesn’t need to prove himself to you. Hasn’t he already been faithful? Think about your life. If you are reading this, you are alive. That’s cliché, I know. Being alive is hardly a barometer of hope, health, or happiness. You may be in the thick of something that is unpleasant- but Jesus did die for you. I know it’s wild to think about, but he thought of you on the cross. He was still God. He could have, and if he could, don’t you think he would?

Ok, so what do we know?