Matthew 8, Mark 2-4, Luke 7

MIRACLES

I DID NOT GET THE MIRACLE I WAS SEEKING SO . . .

I must not have enough faith

I must not be worthy

God must not love me or care about my suffering

The priesthood blessing was not done properly or with faith

OR . . .

Everything is just as it should be.

God has another plan for me

I don’t understand what God is doing in my life, so I must trust in the knowledge that He loves me and he is working with me.

"Righteousness and faith certainly are instrumental in healing the sick, deaf, and lame if such healing accomplishes God's purposes and is in accordance with his will. Thus, even if we have strong faith, many mountains will not be moved and not all the sick and infirm will be healed. If all opposition were curtailed, if all maladies were removed, then the primary purposes of the father's plan would be frustrated. Many of the lessons we are to learn in mortality can be received only through the things we experience and sometimes suffer, and God expects and trusts us in the face of temporary mortal adversity with his help, so we can learn what we need to learn and ultimately become what we are to become in eternity."

David A. Bednar, “Accepting the Lord's Will and Timing” Ensign, August 2016

"Cures don’t always heal and healings don’t aways require a cure."

RELIGIOUS STRANGERS

“God works through religious strangers. For reasons that will never be entirely clear, God sometimes sends people from outside a faith community to bless those inside of it. It does not seem to matter if the main character understands God in the same way or call God by the same name. The divine blessing is effective and the story goes on.”

Barbara Taylor Brown, Holy Envy: Finding God in the Faith of Others

MIRACLES

•  “Jesus worked within His circle of influence.”
• “He customized the healing to what the receiver needed to feel whole.”
• “He never asked who they were, their race, status, worthiness, only that they wanted to be healed.  His   healings had no boundaries.”
• “His miracles are often directed to those who had been outcast from society and viewed as being cast out of God’s presence.”

Annika Rau, Latter-day Faith Podcast, #150