I often hear people talk about the simplicity of the miracles in the New Testament. I am not sure what context they are referring to but if has anything to do with being effortless, I couldn't disagree more. We know that for any miracle to take place there must be faith. Strong faith requires us. It is not effortless. The thing we do for the miracle to take place may appear easy but the belief that got us to the hem of the garment, the water's edge or the Savior's feet is not easy. If we really believe, if we really trust, if we really allow His will to be ours; there is no simplicity in that. The blind man "followed Jesus." We struggle at times to do that with our eyes open.
The woman that had a disease for twelve years. This woman has had a hard life. She had, I imagine, gone from doctor to doctor, year after year, hoping and trusting in the arm of man. Discouragement, depression, angst, unworthiness may have been some of the challenges she had to deal with. I wonder sometimes why she didn't go directly to the Savior, as others had done, and asked to be healed. There could be many different reasons, but for me, it is this. She had faith in the Savior but did she have faith in herself? That is the difficult part. We all know what Christ can do. I don't think we have any idea what we can do. How do we come to know what we are capable of? Hard things. In Helaman it tells us that faith is made strong through our afflictions. The faith exercised in these miracles is significant. It is what kept them going despite the difficulties. The type of faith exhibited in the scriptures is a result of experiencing hard things.
I think there is a huge disservice not talking about how real, true, strong, enduring faith is acquired. And again, this understanding rarely has to do with His power, we get that part, it has everything to do with our power.
When we give up our will and totally trust the Lord, we need to expect that it will be difficult at times. Especially living in a world that is the exact opposite of what He requires us to be. But the great thing about this faith, that really allows us to submit our will and trust, is that even during difficult times, that pull us down to the depths of humility, we can have hope. That is the most beautiful part to me of strengthening our faith. In spite, of the challenges, we are surrounded in the arms of mercy and love. Often times the miracle isn't changing our circumstances; the miracle is our change of heart.
In these hard moments, He is really teaching us who we are. He is teaching us what we are capable of. It is more than we can imagine for ourselves. We put limits on ourselves. But with His offering, we are truly limitless.
