This column will not likely be what you are expecting. These days when people speak of praying to receive a miracle, the first thought that likely comes to mind is some spiritual snake oil salesman trying to get you to send him your money so he can buy a $65 million private “jet for Jesus” or “mansion for ministry.”
The “miracle” will usually conveniently come after they receive your generous payment, at which time they will pray for a miracle of prosperity for you.
Let me be abundantly clear: People like that are crooks and charlatans. The fact that they rob people by deception rather than force does not minimize their iniquity so much as an ounce.
That said, I do believe in God and miracles and even prayers that can produce miracles. But the prayer and the miracle I am pondering today has nothing to do with finances, and everything to do with something much more valuable.
No one goes through life without being hurt by other people. And the most significant hurt will not usually be that done to you by complete strangers. In fact, strangers are fairly impotent to hurt you compared with the hurt that can be done to you by those you have loved the most: a spouse, a parent, a friend, a child, a church member, a pastor, a trusted co-worker, anyone with whom you have grown very close.
When a person like that somehow cuts you to your very soul, the agony can last for years. And that pain often produces something far worse than the original damage. Hebrews 12:15 says: “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled.”
Bitterness can consume a soul, waste away a life, emaciate the very heart of a person. But the solutions often given to overcome it are either illogical, unbiblical or impossible. In Christian circles, they usually take the form of advice like this: “Just pray for God to bless them really good.”
I understand the reasoning behind that advice and, in some cases, it may be appropriate. But how exactly does one justify asking God to bless someone who is doing the unthinkable? “Lord, please help Claude to be the best wife beater ever.” “Lord, Sally is about to destroy our church with her lies. Please give her very good lungs so she can continue to do so.”
I think you see the problem.
But there is another way of prayer, a better way. It has taken me many years to grasp this, but it has been incredibly liberating. Consider a prayer like this: “Lord, Fred was very good to me for many years, and I thank you, Lord, for what you did through him. Please help me never to forget a single kind thing he ever did. I forgive him for the hurt he has caused. I cannot pray for him to be blessed in his wrong, so I pray that you will chasten him, not so that he may hurt, but so that he may be restored to a right fellowship with you.”
The effect is, to me, miraculous. In one prayer you have reminded yourself of the good things someone once did for you; you have placed the credit where it belongs; you have asked for God to step in and correct a person’s bad behavior; and you have requested the steps necessary for a former blessing to be restored.
It is hard to be bitter after that. And the more you pray that prayer, the more the bad memories are washed away in the inexorable tide of the good memories that preceded them.
Bo Wagner is pastor of the Cornerstone Baptist Church of Mooresboro, N.C., and the author of several books which are available at wordofhismouth.com. Contact him at 2knowhim@cbc-web.org.