What is Your Miracle Story?

What is your miracle story?  About every eight weeks at New Life Global Methodist in Salado we celebrate miracles.  We do that on something we call Testimonial Sundays.  This Sunday, Oct. 4 is our next Testimonial Sunday. Two or three (on average) church members share the story of God working in their lives.

It’s very moving, and we invite you to come and listen, or come and share your story.

I’ve got two short miracle stories to share with you today.

Many years ago at a different church, in a different state, I was convinced the cross above the altar of the church moved.  Not a lot, mind, just a few inches at the bottom of the cross that was fastened to the back wall of the church.

Was this an optical illusion based on my aging eyes, or was it the power of the Holy Spirit showing me God is real? No one else could see it.  Some correctly concluded I was a little dingy. Some were more gracious and supportive but not truly convinced.

One thing Christians believe is God can do the impossible. God still gives miracles to his people.

We believe because of the grace of God. John Wesley reminded us of theology that goes back to the time of Augustine in the late 300s or early 400s AD. Something called God’s Prevenient Grace is at work in our lives even before we realize that God is all around us.

Jesus says in John 6:44, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them.”

Maybe that’s what I was seeing — not a supernatural light show, but the gentle drawing of God, reminding me that He was already present long before I knew the name for His grace.  For reference I was in my late 30’s, I wore glasses then, too, but I saw what I saw.

A simple reminder that God is with us, no matter what. Wesley believed God invites us into relationship and we accept that relationship because his Justifying Grace begins to change our hearts and convinces us to believe Jesus is who our grandmothers always told us He is.

The final step in the work of God’s grace is called Sanctifying Grace. A mature faith, in pursuit of God’s perfect love, is at this state of grace.

But it is all the same grace, it is what’s going on in our lives that impacts and magnifies that grace.

If I went back and visited that church today I wonder if the cross would still be moving?  Or does that even matter?  It moved then.  But, does God need to perform supernatural acts to get my attention? Or yours? Or have we come far enough in faith that we know what we know, and we are not walking away from Jesus. We are embracing the power of God, Father, Son & Holy Spirit, and refusing to step away from faith.

Wesley believed we have the human capacity to relinquish our faith. It doesn’t happen in a day. It doesn’t happen if you miss church next weekend. (Though I won’t be too happy with you!)  But Wesley believed it can happen over time when we take our faith for granted, or when we listen to the doubters and the haters who seem determined to “prove” they are right and we are wrong.

Even further back than the days of that moving cross God placed another miracle in my life.  My children, who are both in their 40s today, were seven or eight at the time. We were visiting my mother 150 miles away from our home in Central Washington State. We didn’t have a lot of money, so my mom gave us $20 for gas to get home. (Yes, gas was a little cheaper then.)

We went to the gas station and I tried to pump $20 into the tank. It wouldn’t fit. I don’t remember the exact total, but it was a bit over $1 when the tank would take no more.

Had someone snuck out earlier and filled the tank? No one would own up to that. Was there something wrong with the gas gauge? Was something stuck in the gas tank? Not that we could determine.

Mom insisted we keep the $20, but three or four hours later we were home and I still had that $20.

I believe the miracle of the tank of gas really happened, just like that moving cross.   I cannot explain it other than to conclude that God is always walking there beside us –  prevenient grace – God is seeking relationship with us and asking us to invite him in – justifying grace.  And God is seeking to bring us into a place of knowing and living in  his perfect love – sanctifying grace.

These signs may not mean anything to you. You may blame the moving cross on my bad eyes. You may blame the gas tank as someone’s idea of a joke.

But I believe God gives us everything we need in this life, and I thank Him for that simple miracle that made my life so much easier that weekend long, long ago.

I thank him for his patient love that never fails.  And I encourage you to experience that love by opening the door to your heart, and by choosing to believe that miracles still happen every day.