MIRACLES IN OUR DAY. Part III

His Grace Is Sufficient. by Gaius Columbus

Like a scientist faced with highly variable data, I think we ought to start with the invariant, the constant, the unchanging. For me, this invariant is the notion received through faith that God's word is always true. This starting place is encapsulated in the words of the Apostle Paul, "let God be true and every man a liar". When we start here, the obvious conclusion through sober judgment is that my experience, if it does not square with my conception of God's word, must change or be modified. If I expect to be performing miracles because of my understanding of some verse, but find that I am not moving the small mound in my backyard, then something about my conception is wrong.

With specific regard to healing, I recognize then that I, like many others, do not have the gift of spectacular healing. In appraising my gifts, I am compelled to come to this conclusion through sober judgment. The data trumps the theory. The weight of the evidence, the accumulated data, forces this conclusion upon me. In practical terms, when faced with a disease in myself or in others, I will pray for grace, embracing all of God's gifts to me, modern medicine, faith healing and the prayers of righteous men. If healing comes through any of these avenues, I will be grateful. If not, or if I live through a period of miracle-drought, I will still rejoice in all of God's other mercies toward me.

Casting my bread on the water, not knowing from whence my blessings may come, what I will no longer do is restrict God's grace to any one arena of operation. I will not put God in a box. I will not say that God only heals through prayer or through the ministry of a gifted healer. Remember that Paul, an Apostle recommended a little medicinal wine to treat the gastric ailment of Timothy; not everything is controlled or healed through direct miraculous activity. Similarly, neither will I say that God today works only through modern medicine. There are many reports of miracles of all degrees of wonder today. Neither the position that all healing occurs through miraculous activity or all healing today occurs through medicine is true. God can operate in whatever way He chooses, including choosing not to act, as in the case of Paul, when he himself was tormented with a thorn in the flesh. God's grace indeed is sufficient for me in every circumstance.

Ultimately, however, my relationship with God has to deepen past that which is based solely on what I can receive from His hand. It has to transcend temporal gifts. David says all I desire in heaven is you. Assurance of His love for me and relationship with Him then has to become my bedrock, my unshakable foundation at all times. Whether this love of His for me manifests in miraculous healing, modern medicine or in no cure at all, I will continue to serve and to trust Him. The one unchanging principle--the invariant-- no matter what life throws at me is His love and grace toward me, in which I am to immerse myself continually.

My barber, recently diagnosed with a liver mass and undergoing therapy, said something like this to me. “God is good even if this disease kills me”. This is my best paraphrase of what he said and the correct conception of this issue. Working within such a framework, we stand on a rock, unmoved and unmovable by the vicissitudes and trials of life, looking always to God's broader grace, only a small part of which is the spectacular and the miraculous. - G Columbus

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MIRACLES IN OUR DAY Part II
MIRACLES IN OUR DAY, a recap. Part I