Hello
@Questioning Brother, first off, the miracles that Jesus did were principally used to establish who He was, not to save people.
Faith comes from hearing ..
Romans 10:17, not from miracles, even totally amazing ones (see Luke 16 below as well, particularly what I put in bold).
As for God using slick sales pitches or being some sort of cosmic "Tease" to trick us into coming to saving faith in Him,
1. He is
not a liar and
2. people choose to believe when God makes it possible for them to do so .. e.g.
Ezekiel 36:26-27; John 3:3; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 2:1-5, 8 (see v4-5 & 8 in particular).
God gave Paul his "
thorn" as a matter of grace, to help him remember who he really was, to help keep him from exalting himself, and to help keep him walking in dependence upon the Spirit/by His strength alone, rather than in anyway attempting to do the work the Lord had called him to do on his own/by his own strength somehow ..
2 Corinthians 12:7-10.
As for miracles helping believers, how about bringing His friend Lazarus back to life, or His freeing of the demoniac from the legion of demons that were possessing him, or the woman who believed that if she simply touched His garment that she would be healed from a lifetime of bleeding, who He told, "
go, for your faith has healed you", or the man born blind who received his sight, or the crippled man at the pool at Bethesda who was healed .. shall I go on
Now, if you want your heart's desire from God, here's how the Bible tells us to go about getting it.
Psalm 37
4 Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.
This is an interesting verse, a command with a promise actually, the key to which is found in chasing after the Lord,
NOT in chasing after the things that we desire.
It's also VERY important to understand what our half, the command half, is telling us to do, because many choose to read the command as "delight the Lord" rather than "
delight YOURSELF IN the Lord", in an attempt to set up a
quid pro quo of sorts with God, but He is not/never will be a Cosmic Sugar-Daddy.
Finally, our loving Heavenly Father always answers our prayers, the prayers of all of us who are His
1. with either "yes", "no" or "wait", and
2. with what He sees and knows is in our very best interest (both in the here and now, but first and foremost and far more importantly, with our future, eternal life in view). He loves us (so much so that He chose to die for us), and He always knows and wants the very best for us .. e.g.
Romans 8:28, 32, which is why we chose to trust Him with our lives, both now and in the age to come, when we became Christians, yes?
--David
Luke 16
19 There was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day.
20 And a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores,
21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man’s table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores.
22 Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham’s bosom; and the rich man also died and was buried.
23 In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And he cried out and said, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame.’
25 But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things; but now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony.
26 And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.’
27 And he said, ‘Then I beg you, father, that you send him to my father’s house—
28 for I have five brothers—in order that he may warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’
30 But he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent!’
31 But he said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’
We know that God causes all things to work together for
good to those who love God, to those who are
the called according to His purpose.
Romans 8:28
