Understanding God’s Grace: Not in Instant Miracles but in Lasting Maturity
In many circles of modern Christianity, there is a prevailing sentiment that God is essentially "on call," always attending to the immediate needs and welfare of the believer as if He owes them or as if, through His love, He is expected to provide constant earthly comfort. Believers today often expect instant miracles or immediate answers to prayer because they figure that since they are Christians, God is obligated to shield them from all hardship. While God’s love for us is indeed infinite, this specific theology of guaranteed physical health and wealth actually belongs to God’s dealings with Israel in the kingdom dispensation. During that time, God made literal covenants with Israel to protect them, heal them, and save them from their earthly enemies as a sign of His favor, promising that "the Lord will take away from thee all sickness" (Deuteronomy 7:15) and that they would be "blessed in the basket and thy store" (Deuteronomy 28:5).
However, these national, physical covenants were not made with the Body of Christ today. We must recognize that God works with us in the Dispensation of Grace (Ephesians 3:2) in a very different way. In this present time, we are told that we "walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Corinthians 5:7), which means we do not rely on the visible "sight" of constant miracles to validate God's presence. Our primary blessings are not found in the bank account or the doctor’s office, but are "spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3). While God certainly has the power and ability to work miracles today, it is not His current focus or His method for proving His love toward us. Our inheritance is spiritual and eternal, and we are instructed to set our affection on things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2).
We see this pattern most clearly in the life of the Apostle Paul, who is the pattern and example for those of us who believe today (1 Timothy 1:16). Paul did not live a life of ease or instant deliverance; rather, he suffered immensely in all manner of life and trial, including being "in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness" (2 Corinthians 11:27). When Paul sought the Lord to remove his "thorn in the flesh," God did not provide a miracle of removal, but a miracle of endurance, telling him, "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness" (2 Corinthians 12:9). God’s grace carried Paul through his trials rather than saving him out of them. This teaches us that we are strengthened by our trials and that we grow and mature in faith and in sound doctrine through our hardships. We are told to "glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience" (Romans 5:3), for it is through these pressures that our character is forged.
God works with us over the span of a lifetime, not just in isolated moments of crisis. While we might see a small miracle or a touch of providence at times, it is in the long course of our lives that God is proving us, honing us, and renewing us. This is where the true miracle of sanctification is happening—the process of being "conformed to the image of his Son" (Romans 8:29). When we look back on our journey, we can see the hand of God over the course of years and decades, recognizing that He was working to fit us into the Body of His Son, where our life is hid and will also be glorified. As our "outward man perish," we can rejoice that our "inward man is renewed day by day" (2 Corinthians 4:16). This is the mature walk of a believer: trusting in the sufficiency of His Word and the quiet, steady power of His Grace.
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