Becoming Whole - A 7 Day DevotionalSample

REDISCOVERING THE ENCHANTED WORLD

As we examine the biblical story of change, there are several common errors we need to avoid.

On one hand, most of us Westerners have been heavily influenced by naturalism. One of the consequences of this is that many of us have difficulty imagining that God miraculously intervenes in His world. The Bible sometimes describes such interventions as God’s “mighty acts” (Deut. 3:24; Ps. 145:4). God really is involved in our world. He really does intervene in unusual ways, and we should pray for Him to do miracles. He can turn a heart of stone into a heart of flesh (Ezek. 11:19; 36:26), and He can make a virgin become pregnant (Luke 1:26–38)! That is the same God we worship, and so He can still calm the storm and heal the blind. Nothing is too hard for God (Deut. 1:17; Jer. 32:17, 27).

On the other hand, it is a mistake to imagine that God is active among us only when something is recognized as a “miracle.” As mentioned earlier, the usual way that God acts in His world is by consistently upholding the regular functioning of His creation—what are commonly referred to as the “laws of nature.” If there were no God, such “laws” would not exist or be upheld. Unfortunately, naturalism has distorted our thinking here too; many of us see these laws as independent of God. We mistakenly imagine that these “laws” are eternal, unchangeable, and ultimate, and that even God is somehow subject to them. This puts the Creator under His creation. But God is eternal, unchangeable, and ultimate. He created the universe, and He makes it function so unbelievably consistently that it appears to follow “laws.” In this light, we need to rediscover that we live in an “enchanted” world, a world in which the hand of God guides every drop of rain as it falls to the earth and upholds every single brick in a towering skyscraper. In rediscovering this truth, we rediscover wonder. Recognizing the enchantment of the world encourages us to stand in awe before the complexity, beauty, and majesty of creation in all its intricacies and interconnections, and ultimately to stand in awe before the Creator and Sustainer of it all.

And once we begin to recognize the enchantment of our world, we will also become more open to the surprising yet undeniable ways God works mysteriously in our daily lives, as He answers prayers and makes His presence known to us. From unexplainable financial provision to the softening of the heart of a stubborn coworker for whom we’ve been praying, from the giving of needed courage to apply for a job to the unexpected insight gained in prayerful meditation, God is always active. Even when we may not call such activities “miracles,” we nevertheless should stand in wonder at the clear care He provides for His people and world. It takes spiritual eyes to see God’s active presence all around us, and it takes ears to hear of God’s presence and action in our daily lives.

God is actively involved with His world every single millisecond. Normally, He does this by upholding the regular functioning of the universe, and occasionally He does it through miracles. And if we are really paying attention, we will notice His activity even between the two ends of the spectrum—His regular “upholding” all things and His “miracles.” We might start to sense His nudges, recognize little ways He is active, and see His fingerprints in places we would easily miss if we were not paying attention. We should praise Him all the time for both the usual and unusual ways in which He works to give us “every good and perfect gift.” The question is not, “Is God working?” but rather, “Do we recognize and praise Him for His work?”

The fact that nature has laws was an amazing discovery. In a way, the recognition that the world acts in dependable ways is the foundation of all Western philosophy and science. The sun may occasionally go behind the moon, but it will come back—and unlike the ancient world, we don’t have to fear that some monster has eaten it. Eclipses are part of a bigger system that is so reliable that we can predict exactly when the next one, and the one after that, will happen. We can turn iron into steel the very same way in different places around the world. Water always freezes at the same temperature. We can rely on all the stuff around us to behave in knowable and predictable ways.

Unlike the ancient world, we no longer need to insert “Zeus” into our understanding of lightning or “Neptune” into our understanding of the oceans. Our modern world’s view of God’s relation to nature has therefore changed. The world works with great regularity, so it appears that the material world is independent of supernatural intervention. The physical sciences all assume that it is the nature of the world itself that they measure and study, that its behavior is regular and knowable, and that it is describable in terms of equations and simple cause and effect.

Basing their work on these assumptions, the natural sciences have given the world impressive gifts, which include refrigeration, clean water, vaccines, cures for disease, and improved crop production. None of these improvements appear to need prayers to Ba’al or Marduk or Zeus or Jesus. Thus, we have a dominant philosophy of naturalism coexisting with Evangelical Gnosticism, which is unable to explain any link between the material and spiritual realms.

But the world is a large, complex place. Might it be that, away from the thermometers and telescopes of the scientists, odd little things happen? Is it possible that the regularity of the cosmos is itself an act of a faithful God? Is it possible that God’s hand is actively engaged in every aspect of His creation, moment by moment, so that the world is enchanted with His presence? The church through the ages has answered these questions with a resounding “yes,” calling these acts God’s “providence.”

REFLECTION QUESTIONS:

1. David writes in Psalm 19 that, “The heavens declare the glory of God and the sky above proclaims His handiwork.” When’s the last time you took five minutes to listen to what the night sky teaches about the living GOd?
2. Why do you think miracles are such a sticking point with Western Naturalism?  
3. Have you had skepticism before about miracles in Scripture? Why?