Over-selling God …

When grandiose miracles don’t come, many don’t stay around.

That is happening among believers and non-believers alike. In an attempt to “lure” people to Jesus, some make extra-biblical promises of great miracles.

When the spectacular miracles don’t come, many don’t stay around. And even when there are remarkable miracles, miracles alone often aren’t enough to convince people to surrender their self-governed lives for a genuine relationship with Christ, just as scripture described:

“But Abraham said, ‘If they won’t listen to Moses and the prophets, they won’t listen even if someone rises from the dead,’” Luke 16:31.

Surely if the miracles were great enough, or unmistakably from the Lord, people would come running to Christ, right? That wasn’t the experience of Jesus during His earthly ministry:

“What sorrow awaits you, Korazin and Bethsaida! For if the miracles I did in you had been done in wicked Tyre and Sidon, their people would have repented of their sins long ago, clothing themselves in burlap and throwing ashes on their heads to show their remorse. Yes, Tyre and Sidon will be better off on judgment day than you,” Luke 10:13-14.

The problem with “over-selling” God is building hope in miracles, rather than in the One who is the only hope for humankind: Jesus Christ alone. God is able to do more than we could ever imagine (Eph. 3:20), but the desire for what He can do is not the same as a desire for Him.

What God has promised in his Word is this, “For ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,’” Romans 10:13.

That is the greatest miracle we could ever experience! That is our great hope! A hope shared not by leaning on grandiosity, but on the simple message of the Gospel.

Are you building hopes in miracles, or in Jesus Christ?

Scotty