Miracles Need Both God and You

Every miracle needs two participants - God and you.

There are two things you need to do to begin a miracle. First, you need to have a genuine unselfish intention for the outcome. Second, you must do everything within your own earthly power to facilitate the miracle. Everything else is God's job.

To illustrate this, let me re-tell a very old story.

For years a man prayed each day, "Please God, let me win the lottery." After receiving no response whatever, he finally asked, "God, why have you forsaken me? All I asked was just to win the lottery."

The skies opened and a powerful voice answered, "Jacob, Jacob, meet me halfway. At least buy a lottery ticket."

I re-tell this story because it is cute, and not because winning the lottery is an appropriate miracle to ask for. But the takeaway is, "Meet me halfway." Don't expect God to do what you are able to do for yourself. God's part of the job is to do everything you don't have the ability to do for yourself.

Let's look at an example. Three people have cancer.

1. The first person says, "I'll have the surgery and the chemo. Who needs God."
2. The second says, "If I pray hard enough, I don't need modern medical treatments."
3. The third says, "My part of the miracle is the surgery and the chemo. I am meeting God halfway, and the rest of the miracle is God's job."

I would be that third person, believing that God expects us to use the earthly tools He has given us as our commitment to meet Him halfway.

If modern medicine offered no options, I would travel to Lourdes or to John of God to fulfill my part of meeting God halfway.

A miracle doesn't have to be about a life-or-death crisis. All of life is composed of smaller miracles. For each of those miracles meet God halfway - even if that just means standing in the rain and getting wet to get a better look at one of God's miracle rainbows.