While the man held on to Peter and John, all the people were astonished and came running to them in the place called Solomon’s Colonnade. When Peter saw this, he said to them: “Fellow Israelites, why does this surprise you? Why do you stare at us as if by our own power or godliness we had made this man walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his servant Jesus.” Acts 3:11–13
Too few people grasp how God can work and how he can set things in order here on earth. We see things only from a natural viewpoint. Our educated outlook prevents us from seeing miracles.
Despite our modern outlook, I believe there is hardly anyone who wouldn’t be exceedingly happy,
even if only in the secrecy of his own heart, if a miracle were to happen to him. He would not reject
it, if he were suddenly to recover from an incurable illness. No, he would gladly exclaim, “It is a miracle that I am well again.” That is how most people feel deep down. People everywhere thirst for a Savior who does precisely these things, which so-called modern medicine has little time for.
All of us know that there are certain situations where we find ourselves completely helpless, situations where all the powers known to man are of no help. That is why faith cannot be rooted out of our lives. It does not matter how much water our sophisticated world pours on the fire of faith, our
yearning to believe breaks out somewhere or other. Faith bursts out even if we do not make an opening for it –especially the faith, which thirsts for signs of God beyond our expectations and understanding. If this thirst is not satisfied, people are driven with a remarkable and mysterious power to go out looking.
Think of the many pilgrims who travel to Trier [Germany] to see the holy cloak, which is said to possess wonderful powers. Dear friends – the impulse that moves thousands to go to Trier is basically the same impulse that moved the ten lepers to go to Jesus. Although the goal is not the same, the power which drives them all is the same –a thirst for something we cannot comprehend or see, but which we simply need.
One of the greatest tragedies we face today is that we no longer believe in miracles. Not miracles by
means of uncanny powers or by science, but miracles that lead people to Jesus, miracles wrought by
a true word of God. Do we believe that we can be liberated from illness and death? Do we believe that we can also be freed from the confusion inherent in our nature, from the sin and the follies of our hopes and ambitions? Do we believe this is possible? Or is it not possible, is it nothing but a lie?
Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt
yes miracles do still still happen today 8yrd ago because of debilatating rheumatoid atrhritis i could not feed myself tie a shoe or fasten a button or walk or stand without great dofficulty i thought my life was over but i remembered god healed me before from a bulging disc in my back pressing a gainst a nerve i couldn t stand stand straight i can cook clean live to to god be al;l the glopry in jessus name amen
ReplyDeleteI believe miracles are not only possible but happening daily in our lives. I think the problem for me is when I become "too grown up" to believe anymore in angels and the heavens they come from. Kind of like Susan in the Narnia series who became too grown up to return. That's what is so amazing about children is they teach us to remember that faith in the unseen. A friend once told me that I need to sit down and have a doll tea party again--and carefully consider which dolls I will invite and what we are going to eat and drink and on what dishes.... Every child could tell us exactly how important that is--and none of us adults really has time for any of it. I think the biggest miracle is to be able to recognize the miracles when they happen. Blumhardt is very deep here in what he says, and I believe he really knows what he is talking about. I know how much I have been taught to understand the laws of nature and what "reality" on Earth really is. Thank you so much for these wonderful words to challenge us to keep searching.
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