40 Days of Miracles

Scripture: John 2:1-11

Jesus Turns Water into Wine at the Wedding in Cana 

Here we see Jesus move at his mom’s request. She doesn’t actually ask Him for a miracle; she simply points out the need: “They have no wine.” It’s such a beautiful picture of a mom understanding her son’s heart and His Father’s heart. She knows Him well enough to know He’ll do the right thing, which leads us to question if we can come to Him with that same sort of trust. 

Questions for Reflection 

• Who was/were the recipient(s) of this miracle? 
• Did any human or humans play a part in this miracle? 
• What three things can we know about Jesus by looking at this miracle? 
• What kind of needs do you see in your world that you want to place in front of Jesus today?

Scripture: John 4:43-54

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son at Capernaum in Galilee 

This story reveals that Jesus’ restoration is for every class and type of person. No human being is exempt from pain, no matter how much money or power they possess. In this case, the royal official is in a desperate and heartbreaking situation with a dying son. He begs Jesus to heal, and Jesus does so with perfect timing. The official took Jesus at His word by believing in Him, showing that trusting Jesus can change a heart at any level of society. 

Questions for Reflection 

• Diving deeper, Jesus talks a lot about signs and wonders in this passage. Have you ever experienced anything like this? 
• Jesus speaks against simply seeking a sign but believing in Him on a deeper level; what does this look like for you? 
• Our society has a lot of pre-determined hierarchies; does the Kingdom of God speak to a different type of structure?

Scriptures: Mark 1:21-27, Luke 4:31-36

Jesus Drives Out an Evil Spirit from a Man in Capernaum

Jesus performs a miraculous deliverance almost as a parenthetical interruption to His teaching at a synagogue. Both Mark and Luke record that the people are amazed at Jesus’ authority. As if on cue, an “unclean spirit” interrupts the Lord through a demonized man, provoked by Christ’s presence and power. Jesus immediately responds and commands the spirit to be silent and leave the man. Luke’s more precise account records that the spirit throws the man down as it departs, leaving him unharmed. The poor man is an entirely passive beneficiary in this narrative. The conflict takes place solely between Jesus and the unclean spirit. 

Too often, we imagine that God’s miraculous intervention on our behalf depends on us, our faith, or our expectancy. We often feel guilty if we don’t see God move miraculously. However, in this instance, God’s sovereign grace and mercy alone are in view, which teaches us this: there is no formula. There is only the goodness of God upon which we can always rely.

Questions for Reflection

• What, if any, “formulas” have you been taught will reliably lead to miracles? How’s that working for you? 
• How has your trust in God’s goodness been impacted by answered or unanswered prayers for miraculous intervention? 
• What about this story concerning Jesus’ authority encourages you? 

Scriptures: Matthew 8:14-15, Mark 1:29-31, Luke 4:38-39

Jesus Heals Peter’s Mother-in-Law Sick with Fever 

No need is too small for Jesus to respond with miraculous power. In the middle of Jesus’ grand miracle tour, He encounters Simon’s mother-in-law suffering from a high fever. The sickness may not seem extreme, yet the need is real. Jesus is moved by compassion, by an appeal of faith, whether big or small. Jesus bends down, brings healing, and releases this woman into health and wholeness. For the healed woman, it’s not something she will forget. Jesus sees us and all we face. He will respond to our heart’s needs and our faith-filled requests. 

Questions for Reflection 

• Do you have a need that feels too insignificant to ask Jesus? 
• What obstacles make it hard to trust Jesus for miraculous answers in your faith journey? 
• What miracles have you experienced in ordinary situations that can build your faith when the next ask feels too big? 

Scripture: Luke 5:1-11

First Miraculous Catch of Fish on the Lake of Gennesaret 

From firsthand experience, fishing with nets is a hard job. The nets require proper maintenance; otherwise, the weights become tangled, and the nets become useless. The fishermen in this miracle report have been out all night fishing with no success. Jesus comes on the scene while they are busy cleaning and preparing their nets, which is crucial to their survival as fishermen, and asks Simon to stop and use his boat. Simon could have easily rejected Jesus’ request; he was tired, frustrated, discouraged, and busy preparing his net. Simon was busy doing good things but stopped and invited Jesus into his boat. 

When Jesus tells Simon to cast his net into deep water, Simon responds with reasons why it won’t work and has failed in the past, yet “But at Your word, I will….” It was a deliberate, conscious decision to obey even when things seemed hopeless. That was when the breakthrough happened. At that moment, those men saw Jesus for who He truly was, the Messiah. There is a difference between knowing of Jesus and knowing Jesus personally. They leave their boats, nets, and security to follow Him. When a breakthrough happens in your life, bring others into your boat to celebrate through sharing your testimony of God’s goodness. 

Questions for Reflection 

• What would welcoming Jesus into your boat look like? 
• What situations have you been “fishing at all night” but found no answers? 
• When things seem hopeless, will you say, “But at Your word, I will…”? 

Scriptures: Matthew 8:1-4, Mark 1:40-45, Luke 5:12-14

Jesus Cleanses a Man with Leprosy 

“Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” The man with leprosy shows complete confidence and belief in Jesus just by the way he asks to be healed. Jesus does not disappoint and replies immediately, “I am willing, be clean,” and instantly, the man was healed. 

The three accounts of this miracle are almost identical except for Mark, who added some key details. In Mark, it says, “Jesus was indignant,” which means He was filled with compassion. This shows Jesus’ humanity that He isn’t just some healing robot but was moved to help the leper. Mark further adds in verse 45: after healing the man, Jesus says not to tell anyone but only show himself to the priests. Instead, the man went out and talked freely, spreading the news, directly affecting Jesus and His ministry. Afterward, He had to stay outside in “lonely places.” But it also says, “Yet the people still came to Him from everywhere.” You would think this man would do exactly what Jesus commands after being healed, but how many times has Jesus done something amazing for us, and we turn around to do the opposite of what He asks? Yet even when it doesn’t deter people from coming to Him because that is how compassionate our Jesus is. 

Questions for Reflection 

• What does this miracle tell us about who Jesus is? 
• When you pray, do you boldly ask the way the man with leprosy did? 
• What can we learn from the man with leprosy not doing what he was asked to do after the healing? 

Scriptures: Matthew 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10

Jesus Heals a Centurion’s Paralyzed Servant in Capernaum 

There are two miracles in this story. The first is obvious: the centurion’s servant healed. But there’s a second miracle. The miracle of the centurion, an overseer of Roman soldiers who are the oppressors of the Jewish people, demonstrates a faith that Jesus declares he has not seen in anyone in Israel. I wonder if we limit encounters with the miraculous solely with people we like or admire. But what if an encounter with the God of miracles is possible for our enemy? 

Questions for Reflection 

• What does this tell you about Jesus and his Kingdom that the miraculous happened for someone no one would expect? 
• How do you imagine the Jewish audience reacted after Jesus’s words concerning the centurion’s faith? 
• What does this story tell us about Jesus? 

Scriptures: Matthew 9:1-8, Mark 2:1-12, Luke 5:17-26

Jesus Heals a Paralytic who was let Down From the Roof 

The healing of this paralyzed man, like other healing stories, teaches several important things: faith, obedience, healing, and strength. One unique aspect of this story is how the man and his friends actively participate in a spiritual community. This community believes in Jesus, listens to His teaching, cares for each other’s needs, and walks alongside one another while living out their faith. When the opportunity for healing comes, they carry the paralyzed man to Jesus. When the crowd blocks the opportunity, they open a hole in the roof. They are so determined to help their friend that they come up with an ingenious way to get him to Jesus. 

Jesus forgives the paralyzed man and ultimately heals him because He saw his faith and their faith (v.5). God honors this posture of community and friendship in Christ. He is pleased to offer His abundant blessings to those brought to Him within a loving community. As Christ says, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.” (1Cor 2:9)

Questions for Reflection 

• What aspects of your life are bringing you to metaphorical paralysis? What is preventing you from pursuing your story with Christ to its fullest? 
• Do you have someone walk alongside you in your spiritual journey? Prayerfully ask God to bring you to a community in which you belong. 
• Do you have “paralyzed” friends or neighbors? Do they belong to a spiritual community? Have you asked God to give you creative ways to carry them to Christ? 

Scriptures: Matthew 12:9-14, Mark 3:1-6, Luke 6:6-11

Jesus Heals a Man’s Withered Hand on the Sabbath 

The Sabbath was a day of rest observed as a foretaste of the future rest for God’s people when God, in a cosmic act of grace, heals all things. So what better day for healing than the Sabbath? Well, this was not the opinion of the religious leaders. Rules are rules, after all! However, the “rules” were used by the religious leaders to create burdens for people – burdens they themselves, according to Jesus, would not even lift their finger to obey (Matthew 23:4). Jesus, on the other hand, shows that the Sabbath day is a great day for God’s future of renewal to break into the present with healing. 

Questions for Reflection 

• Who in this story can you relate most with (the religious leaders, the man with the withered hand, or Jesus)? 
• What traditions might hold you back from receiving God’s best for you? 
• What rules subvert the intent of the Sabbath for you or us?

Scripture: Luke 7:11-17

Jesus Raises a Widow’s Son From the Dead in Nain 

We believe that children were meant to bury parents, not the other way around, so this story plucks at our modern heartstrings. However, in Jesus’ day, the mortality rate for infants and children was much higher. Parents regularly mourned children who passed early. This case was different, though, because there was no social safety net. The family was that net, so when the widow in this story loses her onlyadult son, she’s endangered by poverty and desperation in a deeply patriarchal culture. So, this miracle restores life and hope for both the son and his mother. It is proper, then, that the crowd exclaims, “God has come to help his people!” Of course, she is overjoyed to see her son alive again, but she also resorts to a place of honor and security within her community. This miracle includes the spreading goodness of God’s renewal of all things. 

Questions for Reflection 

• What does God want to bring back to life in you — for you — but also for the sake of others? 
• What miracle might you be for someone else as God seeks to restore his goodness in the lives of those around you? 
• How might God come among you and your people to help you? 

Scriptures: Matthew 8:23-27, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8:22-25

Jesus Calms a Storm on the Sea 

Before Jesus calmed the storm, He had just performed several miracles and healed people, yet as soon as the storm started to rage, the disciples were terrified that they might drown. The disciples wake Jesus up, and He calms the sea. They then look upon Him with fear at the power He has just displayed. When Jesus performed miracles for other people, the disciples were impressed, but it took a moment of feeling their own mortality and weakness to truly realize the power of Jesus and their need for it. 

The way the disciples react to Jesus in this story reminds me of how I sometimes react when storms happen in my own life. Regardless of the storm, big or small, I will sometimes doubt the redeeming power of Jesus over my situation. It is easy to trust Jesus in theory, but once we are in the middle of something, it takes faith to trust in Jesus FIRST. It makes you think, if Jesus calmed a literal storm, does He not have the power to calm the storm within your own life? 

Questions for Reflection 

• Was Jesus’ sleeping an example of His faith in His Father? 
• Jesus asks His disciples, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?.” Do you view this as a real question He was asking of their faith? Or was it a rhetorical question since He just showed his power to them? Why or why not? 
• How can we better prepare ourselves for the storms of life so that when they come, and they WILL, we can trust and lean into Jesus instead of instantly doubting that He has everything under control? 

Scriptures: Matthew 8:28-33, Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-39

Jesus Casts Demons into a Herd of Pigs

Jesus and His disciples take a boat ride and are immediately greeted by a man who has been wholly abandoned by society. No one knows what to do with him. He’s dangerous, possessed by many demons, and seems to have lost every semblance of humanity. Jesus immediately seeks to drive these demons out, but then the demons present an odd request. They want to be sent into a herd of pigs rather than just driven out. Jesus complies. In both the healing and heeding of the demons’ request, Jesus demonstrates compassion for the most unlovable creatures. Though we might never directly interact with demons or exorcise any, Jesus’ actions remind us of the unconventional love and care we are called to as His followers. 

Questions for Reflection

• What stands out to you in this story? 
• What questions do you have about the events described here? 
• What do you think the demon-possessed man’s life was like after this miraculous encounter with Jesus? 
• Who in your life/our world today might be viewed similarly to the demon-possessed man? 
• Do you feel like God is calling you to live, act or think differently because of this passage? Why or why not?

Scriptures: Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, Luke 8:42-48

Jesus Heals a Woman in the Crowd with an Issue of Blood

Jesus is on His way to heal a dying girl. He is on a mission; He has a goal. Yet even while He intentionally moves forward to where He is called to be, He impacts a woman’s life. Her desperation put her in His path, and the interruption did not derail Him. He was not too busy to reach the least, left out, and overlooked. It makes me ask: might I be someone’s miracle? Am I so focused on where I think God has called me that I miss the desperation on the path? 

Questions for Reflection

• How does Jesus make space for people? 
• Are you willing to stretch your faith to get to Jesus? 
• Are you looking for people near you who are desperate for the gifts in you?

Scriptures: Matthew 9:18, Matthew 9:23-26, Mark 5:21-24, Mark 5:35-43, Luke 8:40-42, Luke 8:49-56

Jesus Raises Jairus’ Daughter Back to Life

By all accounts, this miracle seems late. Jarius comes late in his daughter’s sickness, and Jesus gets waylaid by someone else’s daughter. Then the miracle that Jarius asks for doesn’t even seem possible anymore. But even when Jairus’ daughter dies and hope for a miracle dies too, he still leads Jesus to his house and through a laughing crowd to the very spot where his daughter lies. And, when face to face with death, Jesus speaks words of life to her. Sometimes the Lord acts in a timely manner to our finite eyes. And sometimes, He seems late, but when we lead Him to the places that seem dead like Jarius did, He astounds us.

Questions for Reflection

• Is there something or someone in your life that seems too far gone for a miracle? 
• What does this miracle story tell you about the character of God? 
• What has God done in your life to amaze you? 

Scripture: Matthew 9:27-31

Jesus Heals Two Blind Men

If you heard someone had raised someone from the dead, would you believe they could heal you? That is the question facing two blind men in this story. It’s clear from Matthew’s account the report about the raising of Jarius’ daughter had “spread throughout that whole area.” As a result, these two men followed Jesus, crying out to Him for healing. Imagine trying to follow Jesus without being able to see Him. They were desperate for healing, so they listened intently for His voice through a crowd of people surrounding the Lord. It’s not hard to imagine them stumbling along the way. Somehow they managed to stay close enough for Him to hear their plea, and when the moment came, they told Him they believed, and their faith became sight. 

Questions for Reflection

• What keeps you from seeing Jesus and believing He can help you? 
• How can you stay close to Him, even if you can’t always see Him and “crowds” seem to be in the way? 
• Do you have someone in your life who can help you stumble towards Jesus?

Scripture: Matthew 9:32-34

Jesus Heals a Man who was Unable to Speak 

Two things stand out in this interaction. First, Jesus’ ministry invites interruptions. He is not irritated but is interested in everyone who comes to Him. They are not inconveniences; they are human beings with valuable lives, and He loves to lavish His care on them. Second, Jesus is a man who moves in power – His track record is undeniable, even to the intellectual and religious elites. Since they cannot deny His power, they attempt to discredit Him by calling into question the source of His power. Yet, they can’t take the experiences of the former blind and demon-possessed men away from them. God’s work is undeniable. And the naysayers’ so-called “expertise” and “logic” breaks down in the end. 

Questions for Reflection 

• Is there an aspect of your life you have held back from Jesus because you feel it is too insignificant for Jesus’ attention and power? 
• What experience have you had with God that no one can take away from you? If you haven’t had an experience like that, would you consider inviting God to touch your life in a powerful, tangible, undeniable way?

Scripture: John 5:1-15

Jesus Heals an Invalid at Bethesda

“Do you want to get well?” It’s an important question because not everyone does. The man at the Bethesda Pool doesn’t answer directly when Jesus asks this of him. Instead, he begins to tell Jesus a story about his unfortunate history. 

How often do we do the same? 

When God comes to us and asks us if we want to get well, do we begin to rehearse a long history of disappointments? When we could simply say, “Yes! Make me well!” Fortunately for us and the man at the pool, Jesus steps outside the conversation we’re trying to have with Him and says, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” Sometimes, He just intervenes in our life to offer us healing and life while we’re still rehearsing how we got where we are in the first place.

Questions for Reflection

• What hurts and disappointments might be keeping you from getting well? 
• What might God want to do to release you from past hurts to bring healing to you? 
• How can you begin to say “yes” to God’s offer of wellness? 

Scriptures: Matthew 14:13-21, Mark 6:30-44, Luke 9:10-17, John 6:1-15

Jesus Feeds 5,000 Plus Women and Children

In each account of this story, we see that Jesus and His disciples were going to a remote place to find peace and quiet. But, because of the signs and wonders the people had seen, the crowds followed them. Jesus, full of compassion, put aside His desire to have some quiet moments to Himself and engaged with the crowd. He taught them, healed those that needed healing, and then met a very practical need of theirs: He fed them! 

But, this meal was not practical by any means. With just a few loaves of bread and two fish, He fed a crowd of over 5,000. That crowd of people needed to be taught; many needed miraculous healing. But we see that Jesus also cared about their need to eat and took care of that, too. The disciples doubted how they could possibly get enough food to feed a crowd that size and wanted to send the people back to their towns to get food. But Jesus challenges them to take what they have and let Him provide the rest. He then turns a tiny amount of food into a feast with many baskets of food left over. This miracle is a clear example of how Jesus is a miracle worker in every area of our lives. We can come to Him with next to nothing, and He can turn it into provision and abundance. 

Questions for Reflection

• Do you have areas in your life that seem too practical for a miracle? 
• Do you have areas in your lift where you’d rather just give up, like the disciples wanting to send people home, when instead you could trust Jesus? 

Scriptures: Matthew 14:22-33, Mark 6:45-52, John 6:16-21

Jesus Walks on Water

I’m fascinated by the fact that Jesus didn’t calm the storm before He told Peter to come. He asked him to come while the storm raged. There have been stormy times in my life when I have cried out to God, asking Him to part the seas or calm the storm. But I felt in my spirit He was asking me to come and walk on water in the midst of it all. He wanted me to walk through the storm with Him as my focus. I wanted God to calm the storm, and He wanted to teach me to focus on Him through the storm, the sustainer of my soul (Ps. 54.5).

Questions for Reflection

• What storms do you see around you? 
• What “boat” is Jesus inviting you to get out of? 
• Are you waiting for Him to calm the storm or calm you, and why?

Scriptures: Matthew 14:34-36, Mark 6:53-56

Jesus Heals Many Sick in Gennesaret as They Touch His Garment

Mark’s Gospel is full of movement: “When they had crossed over…they hurried throughout the region…Wherever He went…” Crowds of people who are sick, and those who love them, flock to wherever Jesus travels to touch His robe and be healed. Maybe they were inspired by the woman who was healed of her bleeding by touching His clothing (Mark 5:25-34). Regardless of the inspiration, they recognized the healing Rabbi and came, some carrying “the sick on mats to wherever they heard He was.” Both Mark and Matthew tell us that all who touched Him were healed. 

We may not be able to carry the ones we love on literal mats like those in this story, but we can carry them to this same Jesus in prayer. Wherever He goes, we can follow even as they did. And we can be sure we are met by the same compassionate, loving God.

Questions for Reflection

• Where do you sense God moving in your life today?
• How might you need to be more sensitive to the movement of God, the direction and impulse of His Spirit? 
• Who do you need to carry to Him in prayer, believing for a miracle? 

Scriptures: Matthew 15:21-28, Mark 7:24-30

Jesus Heals a Gentile Women’s Demon-Possessed Daughter 

Never underestimate the determination of a mother’s love to push against all cultural norms to see her child set free. When the Gentile woman comes to the feet of Jesus, one can hear the desperation in her voice as she’s already had to fight through the stigma of being rejected by the Jewish community, pushing past Jesus’ disciples who wanted her to be quiet and go away, and even breaking the protocol of a woman going to speak to a man; let alone Jesus who had become famous by this point. 

Nevertheless, she pushes through and falls at the feet of Jesus. Why? To see her beloved daughter set free from demonic possession. The little girl couldn’t fight for herself, but a loving mother took it upon herself to fight for her child and see the miracle take place. All it took was faith, perseverance, and a willing heart.

Questions for Reflection

• When it comes to certain spiritual battles, ask, “Am I fighting for myself or others that cannot fight for themselves?” 
• Who has God placed in your life that needs you to fight for them? 
• Are you willing to be vulnerable to go to the feet of Jesus and beg for mercy so that others can find freedom?

Scripture: Mark 7:31-37

Jesus Heals a Deaf and Dumb Man

The Scriptures emphasize speaking and hearing as significant themes. God speaks, and Creation comes into being. We, His creatures, are meant to hear and obey His commands. So, when a man who is deaf and has “difficulty speaking” is brought to Jesus, the poor soul’s healing points to a restoration of Creation’s goodness where hearing and speaking resume their proper place. However, the work is still incomplete because the healed one ignores Jesus’ express command: tell no one. Jesus heals privately and instructs the onlookers to tell no one, “but the more he ordered them, the more they proclaimed it” (v36). Like the afflicted man in this story, we can come before Jesus asking for healing and trust that He will do “everything well” (v37). However, let us also strive to leave His Presence committed to an obedient response.

Questions for Reflection

• Have you ever witnessed a miracle of restored hearing or speech, directly or indirectly? 
• What areas in your life need to be restored so you can hear God and speak of His faithfulness? 
• What is Jesus doing really well in your life right now? 

Scripture: Mark 8:22-26

Jesus Heals a Blind Man at Bethsaida

In the prior verses, Jesus rebukes the disciples for having eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear. And now a blind man is brought before Him. The crowd watches. What will Jesus do with this man? The expectations of the crowd swallow up the man’s own story. But Jesus sees the man. He removes him from the village and the onlookers to a place where they are one-on-one. The man begins to see at His touch – not clear at first – but he does see a little. So Jesus touches him again, and he finally sees. Jesus shows us what opening eyes look like. And then, in the following verses, Peter’s own eyes are opened wide. 

Questions for Reflection

• How do the crowds’ expectations hinder what Jesus wants to do? 
• Are we willing to let Jesus get us alone to be in our most pressing place of need? 
• How did Jesus respond when the miracle only seemed to provide partial sight? Will we trust Him when our sight remains impaired? 
• How can Jesus touch you right now in your place of greatest need?

Scripture: John 9:1-12

Jesus Heals a Man Born Blind by Spitting in His Eyes

In their humanity, the disciples try to understand why this man is blind. They want to know whose fault it is. Someone must have done something wrong to justify his condition. “Was it his sins or his parents’ sins?” they asked. However, Jesus’ response to them is shocking: it is nobody’s fault. Not his, nor his parents. He said: “This happened so the power of God could be seen in him.” Another translation says: “There is no such cause-effect here. Look instead for what God can do.” Jesus is inviting them to see beyond what’s in front of them. To look for God amid a situation. To look for what God can do instead of looking to understand the why. Jesus is encouraging them to take their eyes off the person and the circumstances and to put their eyes on God and His power.

Questions for Reflection

• Currently, is there a situation where you need to look for God and what He can do instead of trying to understand the why? 
• How can you take your eyes off the situation and put them on Jesus?

Scripture: Matthew 17:14-20, Mark 9:14-29, Luke 9:37-43

Jesus Heals a Boy with an Unclean Spirit

A famous fictional FBI agent once said, “I want to believe.” He and the father in this passage have much in common. 

When faced with a culture of unbelief, making that initial leap of trust is difficult; to take up your mustard seed-size faith and declare, “I believe.” It’s even more difficult to admit our failings and declare, “Lord, help my unbelief.” We plant our mustard seed of faith and water it in prayer, asking God to help our unbelief. And God honors it. 

This is especially important as we look towards the miraculous, our need and desire to experience it in our daily lives. Something our culture tells us is impossible. The mustard seed, however, tells us all things are possible with God. We plant and water that desire, that need for the miraculous with the simple declaration of “I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.” When we ask the Lord to grow our faith, to help our unbelief, He will answer. 

Ask, and it will be given, seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened.

Questions for Reflection

• As you look at your own life, can you point to an area where you need to say I believe, Lord, help my unbelief? 

Scripture: Matthew 17:24-27

Miraculous Temple Tax in a Fish’s Mouth

Should a son pay to be in his father’s house? The question is meant to be ridiculous and rhetorical when Jesus asks it of Peter. The answer is obvious: of course not, but this miracle shows that humility and dependence upon God are of greater importance than anyone’s privileged access. No matter our needs, God will meet them, even through miraculous means sometimes. 

However, He may ask us to adopt an attitude similar to that of His humble Son (see Matthew 11:29). Consider Peter, a professional fisherman who used sophisticated netting techniques to catch multitudes of fish daily, was instructed to cast a line like a ranked amateur and haul in only one: a humble catch with sufficient means for only the moment. 

Questions for Reflection

• What do you need God to do for you in a well-defined moment? 
• Where might you need to set aside a sense of entitlement to humbly invite God into a space where you need His provision? 
• How does this miraculous provision encourage you? 
• How does it instruct you about the character of God revealed in Jesus?

Scriptures: Matthew 12:22-23, Luke 11:14-23

Jesus Heals a Blind, Mute Demoniac

The cry of the skeptic is always, “Show me, and I will believe.” However, miracles alone seldom lead to the kind of belief that ends in allegiance. As Luke’s version of this miracle shows us, Jesus’ critics try to explain away this sign by questioning the source of the Lord’s power. The issue is not whether Jesus performed a miraculous sign but by whose authority He accomplished the act. His detractors claimed He tapped into Satan’s power. Jesus challenges their logic and faithfulness by questioning whether they are really interested in God’s Kingdom. Luke records some of Jesus’ most confrontational teaching immediately after this sign. Ironically, the man who could not hear or speak physically is completely healed, while those with their full faculties fail to hear the clear warnings of Jesus’ spoken words.

Questions for Reflection

• What might you fail to hear from Jesus at times? 
• What might He be asking you to speak that you’d rather not say? 
• Is there a “divided Kingdom” within you that needs to be healed?

Scripture: Luke 13:10-17

Jesus Heals a Woman Who Had Been Crippled for 18 Years

There are two kinds of bondage in view when Jesus performs this miracle. The Lord deals with the first immediately and decisively, freeing a woman from nearly two decades of physical disability. She is instantly healed and begins to give God glory, which brings the second type of bondage into view. The synagogue leaders note that Jesus heals on the Sabbath and challenge His timing. The religious bondage that tied the leaders to manufactured traditions proved the more stubborn. Hard hearts are more difficult to heal than crooked spines, and the most profound healing that any human can receive is the tender makeover that Jesus described in John 3 as being “born from above.”

Questions for Reflection

• What have you witnessed recently that you can give God the glory for? 
• Have you ever seen a physical healing actually make someone more skeptical? 
• Who do you know that needs a deep inner healing, a John 3 makeover, even more than any physical healing? How might you pray for them with renewed vigor? 

Scripture: Luke 14:1-6

Jesus Heals a Man with Dropsy on the Sabbath

In the prior verses, Jesus laments God’s people’s stubbornness and inability to move out of their prescribed behavioral boxes. They took pride in their rule-keeping and judged others for rule-breaking. Here, at a Sabbath dinner in a Pharisee’s house, among those who were “watching Him carefully,” a man before Him was suffering from a disease. Jesus asks, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?” They wouldn’t answer. One of their common complaints about Jesus was that He did not keep the Sabbath. Healing (work) was a violation of the rule. Then Jesus healed the man. “Would you not do likewise with your own child or animal?” They still would not answer, frustrating Jesus because they were oblivious to the grace of the Father.

Questions for Reflection

• What is it that offends them about Jesus? 
• What sacred idols are they holding onto? 
• Am I oblivious to the grace of the Father? 
• Will I be so caught up in religiosity that I miss the leading of the Holy Spirit? 

Scripture: Luke 17:11-19

Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers on the Way to Jerusalem

Ten men’s lives were changed forever. Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee and encountered ten men with leprosy. From a distance, they pleaded with Him to be healed of their affliction. Imagine, these men had been doing life together; they were outcasts from their community, but together they were united. Most likely, they were humiliated, unseen, mocked, and hopeless outside the group. Being unseen and treated as less than others, being an outcast from family and community, and being called out and humiliated are harsh consequences in every way imaginable. This scenario is pretty common in our culture today. This passage reveals hope within beloved community despite the circumstances as we wait for our miracle.

Questions for Reflection

• Are you seeing and engaging with communities that don’t look like you? 
• What does this teach us about Jesus? 
• What are some ways we see communities isolated in our world today? 

Scripture: John 11:1-45

Jesus Raises Lazarus from the Dead in Bethany

Mary and Martha already knew that Jesus was who He said He was. They’d seen His many miracles radically change lives in front of their own eyes. From that place of belief and relationship, these sisters had asked Jesus for His help to heal their brother. Yet, Jesus intentionally waited long enough for Lazarus to die before coming to them. “If only you had been here…” Mary says. Even knowing that He was about to bring Lazarus back to life, Jesus is deeply moved to tears by Lazarus’ death and the raw sadness of the sisters and the many gathered. He took time to sit with them in their mourning and to cry with them in their process. To Jesus, it was as important for Him to be right there with them in their current despair as it was to bring their brother back to life miraculously. And because of Jesus’ timing, many more people followed Mary and Martha to the tomb. Because of His timing, many more were able to see and believe in the miraculous truth of Jesus.

Questions for Reflection

• How do you feel about Jesus’ decision to delay this miracle? 
• What does this story reveal to you about Jesus and His relationships? 
• Knowing Jesus wants to be near to the brokenhearted, what is an “if only you’d been there” moment that you need to revisit with Jesus? 

Scripture: Matthew 20:29-34, Mark 10:46-52, Luke 18:35-43

Jesus Restores Sight to Bartimaeus in Jericho

When Bartimaeus hears that Jesus is coming, he tries desperately to get Jesus’ attention. The people around him are annoyed and try to shut him up, but he ignores them and cries out all the louder. This does not put Jesus off but rewards it by healing Bartimaeus. While the world may look down on the desperate or ask people to be more polite in asking for things, Jesus does not. This story is one of many that shows that Jesus has a heart for the desperate and the annoyingly persistent. 

Questions for Reflection

• How are Bartimaeus and his request described in this passage? 
• How did the people around him respond? 
• How does this compare with Jesus’ response? 
• How does this story impact your thoughts on how Jesus responds to you? 
• What might it look like in your life and prayers to be more like Bartimaeus? 

Scripture: Luke 22:50-51

Jesus Heals a Servant’s Severed Ear While He is Arrested

Jesus performs this miracle amid chaos while being betrayed by one of His best friends and with men wanting to arrest Him. Talk about performing under pressure. He heals the servant’s ear that one of His followers cut off. His disciples would have heard His teachings, seen the miracles He performed, and would know of His message, “Love your enemies.” Yet their immediate response was: an eye for an eye. Jesus quickly shuts this down and says, “No more of this.” How often do we, as His followers, act wrongly in the name of Jesus? The crowd thought they were defending Jesus and doing the right thing, but their actions contradicted who He is and what He teaches. This miracle is one of the most courageous acts of Jesus. He healed one of the ones sent to betray and arrest Him.

Questions for Reflection

• What part of Jesus’ character shows through in this miracle? 
• What can we learn from Jesus’ response to the crowd demanding justice through violence? 
• How can we take the heart of this miracle and apply it to our lives today? 

Scripture: John 21:4-11

The Second Miraculous Catch of Fish at the Sea of Tiberias

“Love your enemies” is one of the most radical statements in all of human history. The man who taught it to His disciples also said, “…bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.” One of the people in this story of the miraculous catch was horribly mistreated by another. Peter had betrayed Jesus and was about to come face-to-face in a story that features two miracles. The first is obvious—professional fishermen who had returned empty-handed land a miraculous catch at the Lord’s command. The second miracle is reconciliation, where God’s grace and mercy restore a broken relationship and vocation. When Peter sees the Lord’s provision and hospitality, surely the words, “I will make you a fisher of men,” must have echoed in his memory while another net is breaking with a record catch. As he hauled those nets to shore, did he wonder if the offer still stood? It did. Jesus restored him, and the Spirit used Peter, along with James and John, to found the Church.

Questions for Reflection

• Where do you need a miracle of provision? 
• Where do you need a miracle of reconciliation? 
• Can you see yourself running to Jesus for one or both, and why or why not? 

Scripture: Acts 3:1-11

Peter (with John) Heals a Lame Man

How many times did the lame man in this story witness Jesus go in and out of the Temple with Peter and John? Did he ever ask for healing? Did he ever ask Jesus for money? If so, did he receive any? The phrase translated, “…he asked for money,” literally means that he asked for a “kindness.” If he did ask Jesus for a kindness, then the Lord, in His wisdom, left him lame as he was born for a number of years before healing him through the hand of Peter. 

Now his story is enshrined in Scripture at the birth of the Church. He could never have known that then, especially if he thought the healing Rabbi was less than kind. Likewise, we cannot know all that God knows when we seek a kindness from Him, but we can know His character in the Person of Jesus. The one who “loved us to the end” will not fail to be as kind and compassionate as the fullness of His love leads Him to be.

Questions for Reflection

• Have you ever asked God for something only to be disappointed? How did you feel? 
• How did you cope with your feelings, and does the story of this man’s healing shed new light on how you might process your own experience of God’s timing, response, and sovereignty?

Scripture: Acts 9:36-41

Peter Raises Tabitha, or Dorcas, to Life

God completely understands our circumstances and is always ready to heal the places that need His touch. In this miracle, we see God’s power to heal and restore. Here, Tabitha, a beloved and faithful follower of Jesus, falls ill and suddenly dies. In their grief, her friends wasted no time calling Peter to pray. They don’t stop to try and figure things out, “….they urged him (Peter), “Please come at once!” When Peter arrives, he doesn’t ask many questions to understand or analyze; he immediately falls on his knees in prayer. With her friends, Peter’s belief in God’s power to heal is unwavering. Tabitha’s friends know there is nothing in their lives beyond God’s power. When we call out to Him in prayer, He hears us. He is always listening and always with us in our pain. When the road is rough, let’s be people who run to Jesus first, clinging to His power to heal and restore.

Questions for Reflection

• When pressed by circumstances, what’s your first instinct and why? 
• How does this story help instruct you? 
• Would you be so bold as to pray for someone to be raised from the dead? Why or why not? 

Scripture: Acts 12:7-17

Peter Delivered Out of Prison by an Angel

We often doubt God’s ability to work in our lives as He did in biblical days. But, in this passage of scripture, God shows us that He is more than capable of turning our impossible situations into testimonies of deliverance. Peter’s story is proof of this. Here, we see God do several miracles. He enters Peter’s hopeless situation through the presence of an angel, breaks his prison chains, and makes him invisible to prison guards as he walks freely out of an iron gate that opens “on its own.” What strikes me most about this passage is that Peter’s deliverance was a result of prayer. God responded to a group of believers who knew the power of prayer. However, their prayers lacked faith and an expectation of being answered. Except for one. Rhoda. She believed, and our faithful God vindicated her faith! 

Questions for Reflection

• Do you believe God can perform a miracle for you? 
• Might your “believing” prayer be the invitation to a miracle God desires to give you? 
• How often in community might one person’s faith be the strength lent to someone else who needs it? 

Scripture: Acts 14:8-10

Peter Heals a Cripple

Luke injects a remarkable degree of content into this short account. He offers a precise account of the problem by diagnosing a lack of strength in the man’s feet. He then implies a significant theological position by recording Paul’s discernment of the man’s faith and its impact on his potential healing. What are we to make of that? Is our faith the determining factor in our healing? 

What’s clear from Scripture is that sometimes faith plays a role, and sometimes it doesn’t. It seems better to say that God’s mission to renew all things, and the role these particular signs play in the unfolding of that plan, is more in view at any one time. Even better is God’s loving compassion for those who suffer. The word “faith” here can mean the man’s trust in God’s determination to make all things right again, as Paul preached about the Resurrection — quite apart from any specific expectation that he would be healed at that moment. 

Should we trust that God can and will heal? Of course. Is our trust in Him then the final lynchpin in any healing miracle? Answering yes to that question is reading too much into a story like this. 

Questions for Reflection

• How do you see the interplay between faith and God’s miraculous signs? 
• How do we explain those miracles where the person who receives the miracle seems entirely passive?
• What’s the best way to exercise a balanced, trusting sense of expectancy? 

Scripture: Acts 20:9-12

Paul Restores Eutychus to Life

Author, pastor, and professor AJ Swoboda, commenting on this passage, once said, “We hug dead people.” He wasn’t trying to find an application in the passage; he was simply observing the high-pressure movement of God’s life-giving Gospel, a trajectory that reverses the deadly curse of Genesis 3. Under the protective covering of the Law, death tainted life, making it unclean (see Num 19:12). Any contact required ritual purification. With this miracle, we see the reversal on full display where life erases death, banishing it from the body through touch.

Questions for Reflection

• What are the significant points of physicality and touch in this miracle? Why might they be important? 
• How do you see God redeeming touch in your life, in culture more broadly? 
• What feels dead in your life, or in the lives of those you love, that needs to be touched by the life of God through the Gospel? 
• How might you be an agent of God’s healing, life-giving touch? 

Scripture: Acts 28:7-9

Paul Heals the Father of Publius and Others

If it were not for the storm, the shipwreck, and all that the crew and passengers suffered, Paul would never have been on this island. He never would have been a guest at Publius’ estate. Publius’s father would likely have died, and those who heard of his healing miracle would never have come to the Apostle for their own healing. Sometimes we suffer so that others may be healed. That’s not a popular theological truth in a culture that commits vast resources to alleviate suffering and ensure our comfort. However, we cannot read about Paul’s life and journeys without carrying away that simple lesson. We cannot encounter our next inconvenience even without asking, “Lord, who is this for?” 

Questions for Reflection

• Have you ever been able to trace a blessing or healing, whether physical or otherwise, to the suffering of another? 
• How do you relate to the idea that God may ask you to bear a cost of someone else’s healing? 
• Would you be in if you knew something you suffered would lead to life and healing for others?