This is a picture I’ve seen posted on facebook a couple of times now. Indeed it is not the only one of its kind. And generally I just pass by things that are troublesome to me, but the frequency of this post (along with its number of shares and likes) has me concerned. Namely because this is NOT a true reflection upon the God of the Bible.
In case the writing was too small, the picture says, “Say this slow, God I love you and I need you. Now if you meant it, repost and a miracle will happen tonight. Ignore and all will go wrong”
This picture, and those like it, make two promises. One promise is for prosperity if you say a simple prayer and share the picture, the other is for hardship if you fail to do what the post requires. Let me confidently say to you that whoever is behind the post (and it is not God) cannot come through on either promise.
Now granted, a prayer to God confessing your love for Him and need for Him are in fact good things. To love God with all your heart, soul, and mind is the greatest commandment in the Bible, and confessing one’s need of Him should be obvious. Apart from the deep spiritual needs for forgiveness, righteousness, empowering, and eternal life, there are the basic and logical physical needs of daily life. Who can keep their own heart beating? Who causes their lungs to work? Who keeps their liver functioning, or their pancreas, or their kidneys? Obviously we need God. So praying to God confessing your love and need of Him are good things.
The problem I have with the picture is that it promises a miracle if you say the prayer and hardship if you don’t. And based upon the number of shares and likes it is apparent that more than one person has been duped into the superstition. Either it is a desire for a miracle, or the fear of hardship; but the picture keeps going around. I would like to reveal the truth, and let the truth set you free. Several things you should know:
1) MIRACLES ARE NOT MANIPULATED
The term miracle gets thrown around a lot today. It seems almost everyone is in search of one. Do miracles still happen? Absolutely, but not as frequently as you are probably told, and not according to the will of man. First, you must learn to distinguish between a true miracle and a simple act of God’s providence. God moves and works in our lives all the time according to His sovereign will and providential control, but not everything He does is necessarily a miracle. A miracle, by definition, is something that transcends the laws of nature. Water becoming firm enough to walk on; that is a miracle. Five loaves and two fish feeding 5,000 people; that is a miracle. The sun moving backward, a withered hand being restored, a dead man raised to life; those are miracles. God providing a much needed job is not a miracle. God allowing your body to recover from an illness, is not a miracle. God protecting you through a wreck, is not a miracle. Those are all acts of providence. God was behind them, but He was working in a providential sense, not a miraculous one. So know the difference.
Secondly, you must understand that true miracles are not manipulated out of God, especially by something you share on facebook. Miracles come only from God and are at His discretion to accomplish His divine purpose, for His glory. Throughout Scripture they were used to give credibility to His messengers thus vindicating their message (1 Kings 18:37-39, Acts 2:43, 2 Corinthians 12:12, Hebrews 2:2-4). However, they are not just stored in some sort of “grab bag” for us anytime we want a new set of circumstances. God is not a genie in a bottle. He uses us to accomplish His purposes in this life, we do not use Him to accomplish ours. You will not manipulate God into giving you a miracle, just because you want it.
2) SUFFERING IS NOT GOD’S PUNISHMENT
To read that sign, you would think that suffering or “bad” things were some sort of punishment for living a life that God doesn’t like. Is that true? Are we to deduce that people who have bad things in their life, have them because they have angered God? Are when then to assume that those who have good things, have them because they have pleased God? If that is your assessment you had better tear the book of Job out of your Bible. Job was righteous, fearing God and turning away from evil and yet he suffered like no other. Joseph was a man without one single sin listed in Scripture and yet he was wrongfully accused and imprisoned. David was a man after God’s own heart and yet he spent much of his life on the run from Philistines, an angry king, and a wicked son. Jesus was homeless, poor, and eventually wrongfully murdered on a Roman cross. Was their suffering a sign of punishment? Of course not! Suffering is not an indicator of God’s displeasure. While it is true that sinful living can and will bring natural unpleasant consequences, that does not mean that “bad things” are God’s punishment. Many sinful people actually have good lives on earth (Psalms 73). In reality suffering is a tool in the hands of God to sanctify us and mold us into the image of Christ. Why else would we be commanded to count our suffering as “pure joy” (James 1:2-4)? Certainly if suffering was a sign of God’s displeasure there would be no reason to rejoice over it. Suffering is not to be rejected, suffering is to be embraced (1 Peter 4:1-2). Don’t spend your life trying to avoid suffering, if by some chance you are able to succeed, you will so much of what God wanted to do through you.
3) GOD IS NOT A BULLY
The flip side of pictures like the one posted is that if you fail to pray that prayer or share the picture then something bad will happen to you. This false reality paints God as some sort of tyrant who will smack anyone with a hardship if they don’t do everything He wants. That has NEVER been how God operates. God is gracious and merciful. He does not treat us as our sins deserve. When God became flesh (Jesus) and we saw Him in His most accurate and vivid explanation, He was gentle (Matthew 12:18-21) He didn’t yell and scream and bully. God doesn’t do that. He is patient (2 Peter 3:9), He provides even for the unjust (Matthew 5:45). His grace is sufficient, His love never fails, and His mercy is new every morning. Satan is the one who threatens and bullies, he is the accuser, not God.
4) HEALTH, WEALTH, & PROSPERITY IS NOT THE GOAL
Another misconception of such a picture is that somehow in life we should be on this quest for health, wealth, and happiness. It also assumes that this is God’s will for our lives. Such theology makes it hard to explain why Jesus was homeless (Matthew 8:20), or why He was so poor that He had to borrow money from a fish to pay the tax in His own temple (Matthew 17:24-27). Such theology makes it hard to understand why Paul would leave Trophimus sick at Miletus (2 Timothy 4:20) or why Paul himself would have “the sentence of death” within himself (2 Corinthians 1:8-9). The reason is because health, wealth, and prosperity is NOT the goal. Our god is not our stomach, we are not trying gain the whole world, we are not commanded to store up treasure here. The goal for the Christian is not prosperity it is holiness! We are to be like Christ, we are to be sanctified, we are to be holy as God is holy. Sanctification is the goal (1 Thessalonians 4:3). So to assume that God is just waiting to give you some prosperity miracle completely fails to see what He is trying to accomplish in your life. Many times it is not God’s will to immediately pull you out of adversity. Much of the time it is God’s will to leave you in it, to walk with you through it, and to mold and shape you by it. Making you healthy is easy, making you holy is a true work of God.
5) CONTENTMENT IS ESSENTIAL
Seeing that God is not out to primarily make you healthy, wealthy, and happy (although a relationship with Him does often yield wonderful results), it is important that instead of trying every gimmick to claim every miracle, you instead learn to be content where God has you. “But godliness is actually a means of great gain when accompanied by contentment” (1 Timothy 6:6). “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.” (Philippians 4:11-12). A Christian is not to be greedy, self-seeking, constantly seeking the comforts of the world. A Christian is called to contentment. We seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and God takes care of food and covering. (Matthew 6:31-33) And “if we have food and covering, with these we shall be content.” (1 Timothy 6:8) While God is good and every good and perfect gift does come from Him, learn to be content with what He provides.
6) SHARING A PICTURE ON FACEBOOK IS NOT THE SAME AS CONFESSING CHRIST
Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of such a picture (and countless others like it) is the inherent promise/threat that this is in some way equal to confessing Christ. No doubt the Scripture about confessing Me before men or denying Me before men in Matthew 10 is in view. Some pictures even go so far as to quote the verse as some sort of guilting mechanism to gain more “shares” or “likes” for their picture. It is not uncommon to read words like, “Those who truly love Christ…or those who aren’t ashamed to confess Christ…will share this, those who don’t love Him won’t”. Really? Have we simplified Christianity to such an extent that it all boils down to what we post on facebook? I would be far more convinced if the other junk that people post didn’t blatantly dishonor Him. For soon after many post a picture like this, there will be a vulgar commercial, a vulgar joke, or a good old fashion rant against someone else soon to follow. Am I to assume that I can do all of that and still consider myself one who confesses Christ simply because I forwarded some stupid picture? I for one refuse to repost or share or forward such things. If you want to go confess Christ at your neighbor’s house, I’ll go with you. If you want to go confess Christ on the mission field, count me in. If you want to confess Christ in the break room to your coworkers I’ll stand beside you. If you want to challenge a godless college professor I will help. If you want to be thought a fool for your witnessing at the gas station, if you want to be ridiculed for your refusal to join in worldly activity, if you want to choose Christ over the passing pleasures of sin, if you want to make fellowship with His people a priority, if you want to commit yourself to hearing the word of God and doing it, if you desire to give to others even when it hurts, if you wish to stand against the carnality of society, if you wish to face the hostility of an intolerant society…I will do that with you. But I won’t forward or repost or share or like some manipulative, threatening, greed centered, misleading picture from behind the safety of a computer screen. That is not confessing Christ. You confess Christ by how you live and how you speak daily, not by what you “like” on facebook.
So the next time some sort of gimmicky and manipulative picture comes along promising free miracles or certain pain, just let it pass by and rest assured that it did not come from God. There is no need to fear repercussion from Him if you don’t share it, and there is no reality in expecting a bigger chunk of the world if you do. God is good, He cares for His own, He will never leave you nor forsake you, and even when He allows the bad things in your life, rest assured that He plans to cause it to work for good in your life and to use it to conform you into the image of His Son. That is the truth, and that is freedom.
And incidentally if you fail to repost this…nothing will happen!
Grace to You
