Week 8: Miracles Through Challenges

Week 8: Feb 19, 2025 (Wed) to Feb 25, 2025 (Tues)

Hello, friends! Welcome to Week 8 of the Read the Bible in 4 months Challenge!

Weekly reminders/announcements:

• Keep up the great work in reading your chapters according to your reading plan: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Do8sASRMEPXxYZZvJ-kLINTDYE677zXI
• Don’t forget to log your chapters through email or the Bible reading tracker: https://bible-reading-tracker-createful-purpose.vercel.app/login

In times of difficulty, may you choose faith and prayer! If there is any way I can be praying for you, please let me know!

Blessings,

Grace

Miracles Through Challenges

Have you ever experienced a miracle in your own life? A time when you saw God at work and His clear answer to your prayer?

I don’t know about you, but nearly every miracle I’ve experienced occurred during difficult times. 

The majority of the miracles in the Bible also took place when things weren’t going well:

There was a storm, the boat was about to sink. Then, Jesus calmed the wind and the waves. 

People were sick, leprous, crippled for life, or demon-possessed. Then Jesus touched and healed them. 

The widow’s son died tragically. Then, God used Elijah to raise him from the dead. 

A massive, well-equipped army came against the tiny camp of Israel. Then, God delivered them. 

Five thousand people were hungry with no food to eat. Then, God multiplied the five loves and two fish to feed them all.

When life goes well, we tend to forget God and feel we don’t need Him. Challenges are never easy, but they often set the stage for miracles and spiritual growth. 

We must choose wisely. In these times of difficulty, we can choose to trust and pray and experience His faithfulness. Or, we can worry, complain, and fall into sin.

In difficult times, may we choose faith, for faith paves the way for miracles. In Mark 9:23, Jesus said to the father of a boy with an unclean spirit: “If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.” And if we don’t have faith, let us cry out as “the father of the child cried out and said with tears, ‘Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:24).

When life is challenging, let us choose to pray. Jesus Himself modeled this for us in the Garden of Gethsemane, praying when He was in deep distress. The Father sent an angel and strengthened Him (Luke 22:43). The sacrifices of God are broken and contrite spirits (Psalm 51) and God’s strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12). There is something special and precious about prayers in times of distress; the prayers are pure and sincere, coming from the depths of our hearts. 

Many of the psalms were written in the midst of hardship. David wrote Psalm 3 “when he fled from Absalom his son” and Psalm 54 “when the Ziphites went and said to Saul, ‘Is David not hiding with us?’” In his anguish, David chose faith and prayer, and these sincere, touching psalms continue to bless many today, thousands of years later.

When life brings stormy wind and waves, may we choose faith and prayer, trusting that God can utilize these challenges to work miracles and deepen our spiritual growth.