Every miracle begins with a problem. That problem can become an opportunity for God’s power to work in and through us, developing us in the process. Bishop D. G. Hargrove illustrates how God shapes us into the people He wants us to be through the way we respond to difficult situations.

Nobody asks God for a problem.

We pray for healing, not sickness. We pray for provision, not financial pressure. We pray for peace, not storms. We pray for open doors, restored relationships, healthy families, and circumstances that make sense.

But when we read the Bible, we discover something interesting: many of the greatest miracles in Scripture began with a problem.

In The Problem Before the Miracle, Bishop D. G. Hargrove reminds us that the trouble we are facing may not be the end of the story. It may become the very setting in which God reveals His power.

At the wedding in Cana, they ran out of wine before Jesus performed a miracle. A violent storm came before Jesus spoke peace to the sea. Thousands became hungry before bread and fish were multiplied. Blindness preceded sight. Lameness preceded walking. And before Lazarus walked out of a tomb, there was sickness, grief, and death.

None of us would choose the problem.

But God can use the problem.

Every Miracle Begins With a Problem

Think about some of the miracles recorded in Scripture.

In John 2, a wedding celebration faced the embarrassment of running out of wine. Jesus turned water into wine.

In Mark 4, the disciples found themselves in a storm so severe that they feared for their lives. Jesus spoke, and the wind and sea obeyed Him.

In John 6, thousands of people needed food and the available resources were completely inadequate. Jesus multiplied five loaves and two fish.

In John 9, a man was blind. Jesus gave him sight.

In Luke 17, men suffering from leprosy needed cleansing. Jesus healed them.

In Matthew 17, there was a financial obligation involving the temple tax. Jesus provided in an unexpected way.

And in John 11, Lazarus was dead. Jesus called him out of the grave.

In every story, the problem appeared before the miracle.

We tend to celebrate the miracle while wishing we could eliminate the trouble that preceded it. But without the need, there would have been no opportunity to experience that particular revelation of God’s power.

The problem was not necessarily the blessing.

The problem was the place where the blessing would be revealed.

What If We Asked a Different Question?

When trouble enters our lives, one of our first questions is often, Why?

God, why did You allow this?

Why is my family going through this?

Why did this door close?

Why haven’t You answered this prayer?

Why is this happening now?

Those are human questions, and Scripture is filled with people who asked God questions in painful seasons. But Bishop Hargrove challenged us to consider another question:

“Lord, what are You going to reveal through this problem?”

That question does not minimize the pain. It changes our posture toward it.

The disciples saw a storm. Jesus saw an opportunity to reveal His authority.

The crowd saw five loaves and two fish. Jesus saw enough to feed thousands.

Mary and Martha saw a dead brother. Jesus saw an opportunity to reveal something about Himself that they desperately needed to know.

Sometimes we are so focused on getting out of the problem that we miss what God wants to show us in the problem.

Lazarus: When the Problem Gets Worse Before the Miracle

John 11 gives us one of Scripture’s clearest pictures of this principle.

Lazarus was sick, and his sisters sent word to Jesus. They knew Jesus loved their brother. They knew Jesus had the power to heal. It would have been reasonable to assume that Jesus would immediately come and fix the situation.

Instead, Jesus waited.

Lazarus died.

By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb four days.

From Mary and Martha’s perspective, the problem had not merely remained unresolved. It had become dramatically worse.

Yet Jesus had already said in John 11:4, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.”

Jesus was not saying Lazarus would never physically die. Lazarus did die. He was saying death would not get the final word in this story.

The Size of the Problem Does Not Limit the Power of God

When Jesus arrived, Martha told Him, “Lord, if thou hadst been here, my brother had not died.”

She knew Jesus could have prevented the problem from reaching this point.

But Jesus was about to reveal that He was not limited to preventing death.

He had authority over death.

Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection, and the life.”

Then He stood before Lazarus’ tomb and called him out.

The delay had made the situation look impossible, but it also created the setting for a greater revelation of who Jesus is.

There will be moments when we believe God should have acted already. We prayed, but the circumstances got worse. We trusted, but the door still closed. We believed, but the answer did not come according to our timetable.

John 11 reminds us that God’s delay does not mean God’s power has diminished.

If anything, the situation becoming impossible by human standards may make it unmistakably clear who deserves the glory when God moves.

Trouble Can Push Us Toward Jesus

Not every problem is something God sent, and we should be careful about assuming that every painful circumstance was directly caused by Him. But Scripture repeatedly demonstrates God’s ability to use trouble redemptively.

Mark 5 introduces us to a woman who had suffered with an issue of blood for twelve years. She had endured prolonged pain and disappointment, and what she had tried before had not solved the problem.

Then her desperation brought her to Jesus.

She said, “If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.”

Her trouble became part of what pushed her toward the One who could do what nobody else could.

There are places comfort may never take us that trouble will.

Sometimes a problem exposes how much we have depended on ourselves. It can drive us deeper into prayer. It can make Scripture more precious. It can remind us that our security was never supposed to rest entirely in money, people, careers, plans, or our own ability.

Trouble can take us deeper with Jesus than comfort ever required us to go.

The Problem Can Produce Something in You

We naturally want God to change our circumstances, but sometimes God is also using our circumstances to change us.

James 1:2–3 tells believers to count it joy when they encounter various trials because the testing of faith produces patience.

James does not tell us to pretend pain feels good. The joy comes from understanding that God can produce something valuable through something difficult.

Trials can develop patience.

They can strengthen endurance.

They can deepen prayer.

They can expose areas where our faith needs to grow.

They can teach us dependence upon God.

They can produce spiritual maturity that comfort alone may never have developed.

This changes the question from merely, How quickly can I escape this? to, God, what can You produce in me while I’m walking through it?

We would never celebrate suffering for suffering’s sake. But neither should we waste a difficult season by refusing to allow God to use it.

The problem may be painful, but God can make the process productive.

Your Test Can Become Your Testimony

Romans 5 describes a progression that only becomes possible because difficulty exists.

Tribulation produces patience. Patience produces experience. Experience produces hope.

Notice that hope appears on the other side of a process.

There are things you know about God today because of something you survived yesterday.

You know He provides because you once needed provision.

You know He comforts because you have grieved.

You know He can give peace because you have experienced circumstances that should have robbed you of it.

You know He can restore because something in your life once seemed broken beyond repair.

You know He can carry you because you have already lived through a season when you did not believe you could take another step.

The thing you once wanted God to remove may eventually become part of the testimony you use to encourage somebody else.

What you are going through can become evidence of what God brought you through.

Sometimes the Trouble Is Bigger So the Miracle Is Clearer

We prefer problems we can solve.

Those situations allow us to pray while simultaneously developing a backup plan. We can ask God to work while remaining reasonably confident that, if necessary, we can handle things ourselves.

But then there are Lazarus-sized problems.

There are situations where our ability ends.

No strategy is enough. No connection can fix it. No amount of effort can manufacture the outcome we need.

Those moments are frightening because they expose our limitations.

But our limitations are not God’s limitations.

Your problem may be bigger than your ability, but it is not bigger than your God.

The greater the impossibility, the clearer it becomes that the answer did not come from human strength.

Nobody could stand outside Lazarus’ tomb afterward and congratulate Mary and Martha on their strategy.

Lazarus was alive because Jesus had spoken.

Sometimes the size of the problem becomes the backdrop against which the greatness of God becomes unmistakable.

Don’t Despise the Place Where God May Reveal His Power

We understandably want to get past our problems as quickly as possible.

But what if this difficult place becomes sacred ground?

What if this is where your faith grows?

What if this is where your prayer life changes?

What if this is where your family discovers a new level of dependence on God?

What if this becomes the birthplace of a testimony you will tell for decades?

What if someone watching your life discovers what faith looks like because they see how you trust Jesus in a season you never would have chosen?

Don’t despise the problem that may become the platform for your miracle.

That does not mean calling evil good. It does not mean pretending tragedy is pleasant. And it certainly does not mean every painful situation will end with the exact miracle we request.

It means believing Romans 8:28: God is capable of working through all things for good to those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.

The trouble is real.

But so is God’s purpose.

I Wouldn’t Have Chosen It, but God Can Use It

There are things in our lives we would never voluntarily choose.

We would not choose grief.

We would not choose sickness.

We would not choose financial pressure.

We would not choose betrayal.

We would not choose uncertainty.

We would not choose the storm.

Faith does not require us to pretend otherwise.

We can say, “I wouldn’t have chosen the problem, but God can use the problem.”

He can use it to push us toward Him.

He can use it to teach us to trust Him.

He can use it to develop perseverance.

He can use it to position us for something we cannot yet see.

He can use it to give us a testimony.

Our confidence is not that every problem is good. Our confidence is that God is good enough and powerful enough to work even in the problems.

Finding Hope in Hard Seasons in North Texas

People throughout Garland, Texas, Murphy, Plano, Richardson, Rowlett, Wylie, and communities across Dallas County, Collin County, and Rockwall County walk through real problems every day.

Families face financial stress. Parents worry about their children. People receive difficult diagnoses. Marriages experience pressure. Careers change. Loved ones are lost. Prayers seem unanswered.

Being part of a church does not make us immune to trouble.

At North Cities, we believe it gives us a place to encounter Jesus in the middle of it.

If you are looking for a church in Garland, TX, a Spirit-filled church, or an Apostolic church in the North Texas area, you do not have to wait until everything in your life is fixed before coming to Jesus.

Bring the problem.

Bring the questions.

Bring the disappointment.

Bring the thing that seems impossible.

The same Jesus who stepped into storms, stood beside graves, touched the sick, fed hungry crowds, and restored broken lives is still worthy of our trust.

The Problem Before the Miracle

Maybe you are living in the part of the story nobody wants.

The wine has run out.

The storm is raging.

The crowd is hungry.

The diagnosis came.

Lazarus is in the tomb.

And you cannot yet see what Jesus is going to do.

Do not confuse the difficulty of this chapter with the conclusion of the story.

The problem may become the place where your faith grows. It may become the place where God’s power is demonstrated. It may become the place where your testimony is born. It may even become the place where someone else discovers what Jesus can do.

So instead of asking only, “God, why did You allow this problem?”

Perhaps we can also pray:

“Lord, what are You going to reveal through this problem?”

We may not have chosen it.

We may not understand it.

We certainly do not have to enjoy it.

But we can trust God in it.

Because sometimes, the problem is simply the part of the story that comes before the miracle.