Ordinary Miracles

Today a friend went through a test.

As a result of a series of errors in their judgement, other people suffered loss. Before they went before a court to determine what they were guilty of and what their sentence should therefore be, we prayed.

I felt led to ask our Wondrous Father for much grace and surprising favor. When I got the “here’s how it went” phone call after the trial, I was impressed at the outcome. It represented much grace and surprising favor.

In my prayers of thanks, though, I felt that I was being instructed to stop being surprised by that much favor. We ask for things to happen or not happen, and sometimes we get what we desire and sometimes we don’t. Interacting with the Holy One is clearly art and not science. It becomes very confusing trying to build a picture in our minds or lives about what is “normal.”

The thought that came to me from the Book was something Luke recorded about some astonishing favor in Acts 19. He wrote that God worked unusual miracles by the hands of Paul. Clearly, there is a category of “usual” miracles if there is, also clearly, a category of “unusual” miracles.

When are we going to step into the position of expecting “usual” to include “miraculous”?

I think that the door is open in heaven. Help us, Lord, to grasp how to get the door on our end open so that we receive and distribute the wealth of the resources of heaven everywhere we go!