Like most Christians, I believe in miracles - ie. I believe that they exist - although I don't really expect them to actually occur a whole lot (and therefore, I am generally to be found wearing my cynical hat when I get told about one).
But listen to this:
Two or three weeks ago, Maria was asked (by a girl from the exercise class she teaches) if she could pray for a friend: a young guy who had just been told he has two cancerous brain tumours, one completely inoperable. He was about to start radiotherapy/chemotherapy and so on.
Maria said, 'sure', told me about it, and we prayed. Probably for a combined total of twenty-five seconds.
And a week ago today, Maria was given the update: the tumours have both completely, miraculously disappeared. The doctors don't know what to say or think. They will keep checking on the guy, but he is fine and free to carry on with life.
It's a miracle.
How are Maria & I feeling about this? Very weird. We know that God answers prayers - we've seen inexplicable things happen before - but we have prayed for so long for so many things that we have come to expect His answer to be 'no'. We presume that God won't be interested in what we think would be a good plan. And therefore we tend to feel distant from Him, because being turned down all the time has that effect, doesn't it?
I am not happy to be in this situation. I want to be more childlike in my intercession: to ask with faith and hope, but without feeling obliged to explain or understand the results. I want to trust God more.
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