Words of Encouragement

Do you know how many miracles you are looking at? This is a picture from the Meet and Greet at Langley Avenue Church of God, last November. How many? COUNTLESS!

The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother. They were all filled with awe and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us," they said. "God has come to help his people." This news about Jesus spread throughout Judea and the surrounding country. – Luke 7:15-17

Where can I find help? God is here. Jesus was walking and there was a funeral procession passing by. He saw it and took pity on the mother whose son had died. Jesus had pity on her and touched the coffin of her son and called him forth. The dead man sat up and began to talk.

All that were around were astonished by what they saw, but they still were not aware of what it was they were experiencing. They assumed that he was a great prophet and they rejoiced that God had come to help his people.

They were partly right; God had come to help his people. Except he had not sent a prophet, but he had come himself in the form of his Son. God with us, Emmanuel had come to help his people. What the people did not realize in the full sense of the word was, “God is here”.

They are not different than us today, we see the wonder of God as his miracles are performed, but we stop short of acknowledging that it is God’s Spirit. We say, oh that was this or that, and we marvel at what was done, but we stop short of giving God’s Spirit the credit. We may say, for example that person did a good job, but are not willing to go all the way and say that they were being led by God’s Spirit and in doing so we don't acknowledge the presence of God in our world today.

Lord help us. We are seeking your help, but we sometimes cannot see that you are right here with us. Your Spirit is available to help us, but we don’t always see clearly the full picture. Lord help us to recognize that you are still working miracles in the lives of everyday people and we only need to realize that it is you, because you are with us and you are our help.