Better Than Magic
by: Talasi Guerra
My three-year-old daughter’s eyes dance as the evening’s entertainment unfolds. Once again, the dinner table has transformed into a theatrical spectacle as daddy’s sleight-of-hand trickery captivates his audience of one. Inviting her to blow on his now closed fist, he vanishes one of her tiny toys from the palm of his hand and into thin air.
“Where did it go?” he asks.
Delighted, she replies and giggles, “Is it behind my ear?!” She feels around for it but returns with empty fingers. “It’s not there.”
“Wait…could it be?” daddy prods and questions. “Could it be behind mommy’s ear?”
He tenderly sweeps the side of my face with precision and love, expertly producing the missing toy and returning it to his doting little girl.
Magic.
As a child, I too would have believed it. It was easier to believe in anything back then—before I understood that magic was nothing more than smoke and mirrors, or that prayers didn’t always produce my desired results.
But I grew up. I became skeptical, guarded, and disillusioned. Even as a follower of Jesus, I found it difficult to live from a place of complete trust, a place of delighted belief.
And this became for me a source of shame and guilt. I understood that salvation was by grace through faith. I lamented that my incessant works highlighted my lack of confidence in the gospel, my inability to fully rely on the radical mercy of God. But despite my efforts, I couldn’t seem to embrace a posture of abandoned faith.
What was wrong with me? Was I a bad Christian? Was I even saved?!
Genesis 15:6 says that Abram (later known to us as Abraham) believed God, and God “credited it to him as righteousness” (NIV). It felt like a dagger in the side for someone like me struggling with unbelief. How could I ever measure up? I couldn’t achieve righteousness by works. And unlike Abraham, I couldn’t achieve it by believing either. What hope was there for me?
But as quickly as hope can vanish, God can restore it to our hearts, almost as if by magic. No matter how it stings in the moment, we must remember that God’s Word is flawlessly true. And if we are willing to sit with it through the discomfort, we can trust that, in time, God will bring fresh revelation to his Word and a healing touch to our hearts.
That was the case for me. Now I understand Abraham wasn’t necessarily any more righteous or faithful than any of us. There wasn’t anything particularly more powerful about his faith. He made some bad calls and did some foolish things. He questioned God.
In fact, I suppose Abraham was probably quite ordinary. He loved and believed in God, AND he struggled to live out his faith in the practical moments of his daily life. Sometimes he was driven by a childlike faith, but I’m sure there were also plenty of days when distrust and discouragement got the better of him.
Sound familiar?
Friends, the story of Abraham isn’t the story of a perfect man who had unprecedented faith. It is the story of a perfect God who offered unprecedented grace.
When Abraham believed God in Genesis 15:6 and God “credited it to him as righteousness,” I wonder if it was almost as if God was graciously saying, “Well, you don’t have much else going for you in the righteousness department...so I’m going to give you this one for free!”
And the beauty of it is that God’s grace works the same way for you and me. He isn’t on the hunt for ways or reasons to condemn us. He would much rather find loopholes through which to offer us mercy. He’s not looking to punish us for our struggling faith. He’s pursuing whatever tiny specks of faith we bring so that he can bolster them by the power of his Spirit.
Like Abraham, my life is full of messy moments and foolish decisions. But praise God, he takes my weak, tattered, and faltering belief in the gift of Jesus, and counts it toward me as righteousness.
And if you ask me, that’s better than magic.
Talasi Guerra is a Christian communicator who is passionate about infusing Jesus into her everyday life and empowering others to do the same. Bestselling author of Joy Like a Mountain, she lives to communicate biblical principles in relevant ways that inspire, challenge, and awaken others to embrace their God-given purpose.
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