USELESS MIRACLES- BY PASTOR GREG ELKAN

_There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there._ – Jn 2:1

Our Lord’s first ever miracle – the turning of water into wine – puts paid to the notion that God does not provide miracles for His children unless it serves a ‘higher purpose’.

Of what ‘kingdom’ value was the turning of water into wine? The Lord never used it as premise for a message – the way He used the multiplication of loaves of bread to set up the stage for His talk about the “true bread” from heaven (John 6) 

He never taught the _“Parable of the Stranded Couple,”_ 😃 or made any reference whatsoever to it in His ministry. As a matter of fact, but for John’s unique chronicling of this event, we’d never have known it even occurred.

Yet we today make prayers like,

_“Lord, if you give me the car, I’ll use it for evangelism”,_

_“If you give me the job, I’ll place tracts on every person’s table each morning”_

_“If you give me food, I’ll fast twice a week,”_ (wait, what?!).

Yes, those thoughts are noble, just like Samuel’s mother, Hannah. Nevertheless, the other barren women in the Bible whose prayer God answered didn’t return their children).

James, Jesus’ blood brother (he should know what he’s talking about, right?), chides us in his epistle: _“You don’t have the things you want, because you don’t pray for them;”_ and earlier he says we should ask of God because _“God is generous to everyone and doesn’t find fault with them.”_ (Jas 4:2; 1:5 GW).

Beloved, I learnt from a reliable source that God – the Monarch of Heaven, the creator of the Universe, the One whom everyone in the world is praying to get a miracle from – is actually _your_ Father! Is that true? You’re blessed O!

If I were you, I wouldn’t be doing this _‘gentility’_ with Him O; all these _“Father I don’t want to bother you”, “Father I know it’s my fault”, “Father, I hope my requests are not getting too much”,…_

Nah! If God were my Father, I’d boldly walk straight to Him – like Mary, who evidently knew that being related Jesus counts for something – and tell Him my need, just like that.

AMEN...

PASTOR GREG ELKAN