Why do you want a miracle?

Why do you want a miracle?  Why do you want to be healed?  Why do you want God to provide miraculously?  Why do we hear so much about miraculous things from missionaries in foreign countries and not as many here?

I think part of the answer is in Elijah's prayer in 1 Kings 18.  When Elijah is having the showdown on Mt. Carmel, it's Elijah against the hundreds of prophets of the false god Baal.  When He prays for God to show up miraculously, here's what he prays:

"Answer me, LORD, answer me [do a miracle here, in this context] so these people will know that you, LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again." (1 Kings 18:37).

Notice the two reasons Elijah gives for why he wants God to do a miracle. 

1. So these people will know that you, LORD, are God.  

2. So these people will know you are turning their hearts back again.

I find those two reasons powerful reasons for asking for a miracle.  So many times we ask for selfish reasons. It's true that God loves us and is gracious to us, and wants our good, but when we pray for selfish reasons, we shouldn't be surprised if God is hesitant.  James 4:3 puts it this way, "You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions." 

Francis Chan puts it this way - "Our desire should be to live for the sake and glory of the God who put us on this earth in the first place." That's a good reason to pray for healing.  Maybe we should pray harder than ever for God to do miracles...so that people would know that He is God, and that people's hearts would be turned back to Him.  God seems to be very concerned with our motives...so...why do you want a miracle?