For Dennis, Steve, and All the Rest

4.8.2011

Psalm 77:10-12 10 Then I thought, “To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High.” 11 I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. 12 I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds. NIV

Today is the third day in a row I’ve read a psalm and stopped on the issue of God’s hearing/listening to our prayers, our cries, our pleas. I believe God hears us when we cry out to Him but sometimes His answers are delayed; often, His answers are simply wrapped around some miracles of long, long ago.

Recently, a reader asked me this question about my perspective: “Relating to Mark 16:17-18, am I a believer if I don't see the fulfillment of Jesus' words regarding the signs following those who believe?”

To maybe answer that, I had to think about this: Asaph was a believer, but I think Asaph was acquainted with hard times which led him to ask questions of God – “Will the Lord reject forever? Will he never show his favor again? Has his unfailing love vanished forever? Has his promise failed for all time? Has God forgotten to be merciful? Has he in anger withheld his compassion?” (Ps 77:7-9) There were few miracles recorded in the days of Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, the Kings, and the Chronicles. Conversely, there was a lot of national unbelief and a lot of individual backsliding. Kind of like our days.

So, to answer the questions of my reader and Asaph, I turn again to Asaph himself who said, “Then I thought, ‘To this I will appeal: the years of the right hand of the Most High.’ I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your miracles of long ago. I will meditate on all your works and consider all your mighty deeds.”

Whoever we are, wherever we are, and whenever we see what we think is a dearth of God’s miraculous activity, we must remember that this God of ours (the same yesterday, today, and forever) is the same God of mighty miracles; and what He did then, should serve as a real-time reminder of who He is now, and what a Resource He is to us whether we see signs and wonders following us or not. Asaph didn’t have any right-now miracles to hang his hat on but he sure knew of some that had happened  and by faith he accepted them as if they had happened that day. It’s not as much what we want God to do today, but for us to accept by faith what God has already done in the past; and to believe that His power and presence have never diminished or died out in the annals of human history.