Miracles can seem few and far between (pardon the cliche). We all know life is rough, and that things often don’t go the way we want them to. Even when we ask God to give us the miracle we’re looking for.

But in the New Testament, Jesus performed loads of miracles. Every place He went, He met someone to help. So why does it seem like we can’t access that same relief?

After all, we’re God’s children too. We need help just like the people who lived two thousand years ago. We get sick, lose loved ones, feel crushed by sin and evil. But miracles just don’t seem to come. So we go on, certain we’re lost and abandoned by God.

Maybe that’s a little melodramatic. But I do think we hit those low points and think, well, God isn’t helping me like He helped other people. Is He actually there? Does He care? And in low moments, those questions can be hard to find answers to.

Luckily, there are answers to those questions: yes, God is there, and yes, He cares more than you know. Sure, it’s easier to say that than believe it at times, but that doesn’t keep it from being true. 

I think it’s possible that we don’t always understand miracles well. And I think, with a closer look at our lives, that we might find more miracles than we knew were there.

But, before we get to that, let’s start here:

Why Jesus Performed Tons of Miracles

Yes, Jesus Christ, the Savior and Redeemer of the world, is God, that’s how He performed miracles. And yes, God loves His children and wants them to be aided, relieved, and blessed. 

But there’s more to Christ’s earthly miracles than just that.

When Jesus Christ was on the earth, His purpose was to proclaim Himself as the prophesied Messiah and to teach a select few who would further His church when He returned to His Father in Heaven. To accomplish this, Jesus called apostles, accepted disciples, and spent quite a bit of time speaking to His followers and the massive crowds who stopped to listen. 

Miracles were Christ’s way to demonstrate the truth of His teachings. Jesus knew that as the Son of God He had power over people, elements, even death. He used this power to prove the faith people put in Him. Christ’s disciples believed He was the Messiah anyway, but this belief was reinforced by the miracles He performed.

Christ’s miracles achieved another purpose as well. By coming to earth in the flesh, Jesus gave us a physical example of who God is and what His character is. As the Son of God, Jesus is one in purpose with our Father in Heaven, and He does all that our Father would do. So, while on earth in mortality, Jesus treated the people around Him the way our Father in Heaven would have treated them if He had been the one physically present. 

With Christ’s example of the character of God, we now have a physical, recorded reference point to know who God is. We can come closer to Him through this knowledge. 

Christ’s miracles showed us God’s love. For all the warnings of punishment and captivity that flood the scriptures, God’s love is truly greater than His vengeance. And He doesn’t only offer miracles when His Son is physically present. Just look at Abraham and Moses. While they did speak to God, many miracles in their lives occurred when they were not face-to-face with the Savior. 

So if Christ doesn’t need to be tangibly present to perform miracles, why do we still feel distant from such blessings?

Faith and Humility

A big reason miracles can be hard to come by is that we want God to do things our way, not His way. We know what miracle we want, and we want it now. 

Well, God doesn’t work that way. He knows what the best action is, and if He withholds a miracle that we desperately want, He has an outstanding reason for doing so. Even if it doesn’t seem like it at the time.

Faith and humility play a huge part in receiving miracles. We need to be humble enough to accept God’s will, whatever it may be, and recognize that He does know better than we do. And we also can’t expect that God will give us a miracle for free. It doesn’t take much to qualify for a miracle, but if we don’t have faith in Christ and faith that the miracle we need can actually occur, God can’t give us the blessing we need.

Faith and humility are simple things, but they can be a challenge to fully apply in our lives. When we do exercise them, the results can be staggering and incredible. Without them, we won’t make it far because we won’t qualify for the help of heaven that is available to us.

Recognize Miracles

I think we also wonder where miracles are in our lives when there are various miracles right under our noses. At the risk of sounding cliche again, each day we have is a miracle of sorts. Every breath that God grants us is a blessing and encouragement to keep going. 

Challenges can be miracles in disguise. Losing someone in your life may allow the space or freedom you needed to step forward and move on to things that were unavailable to you with that person in your life. 

Every opportunity to grow, every sweet person to reach out and offer you kindness, every low point that you push through, all of these things are miracles. 

Yes, the bigger miracles of physical healing and raising from the dead are possible. But they may not be the miracles you need. 

Instead of searching for miracles that you want, step back and look for the mindful miracle God grants every day. I believe that it can open us up to accept more miracles into our lives and help us to draw closer to God as we realize everything He does for us. 

Miracles aren’t the result of a process. We can’t dictate them. Miracles are gifts from God granted to us in our times of need based on our faith. This understanding alone can start us into seeing the miracles God grants us. 

Gratitude for the miracles we receive puts us in an even closer, more meaningful relationship with God than we’ve ever had before. He’ll know that we are making an effort to appreciate what He gives us, and He’ll flood us with miracles that we didn’t know we needed. 

All it takes is a pause to recognize God more in our lives. Simple actions that lead to beautiful results. Let’s take this week to see if we can be more aware of our Father in Heaven’s hand in our lives.