Expect a Miracle ...

When faced with a tough situation, what is your response? Do you expect God to show up? Do you believe He'll make a difference? Do you expect a miracle?

Most of us assert that we do believe in these things; or at least we want to. Our biggest obstacles seem to be our personal expectations and our distain for God's timing. We expect things to be done "yesterday" and His spiritual timepiece seems slower than molasses or it seems all together broken.

Think of your current and troublesome situation. It might involve your:

• marriage
• child(ren)
• friendships
• job or vocation
• in-laws or extended family
• elderly parent(s)
• finances
• health
• happiness
• future

When it feels as though God has forgotten us as we deal with some of the above concerns, doom and gloom presence themselves close by.

• We worry and fret about whether our marriage can survive.
• We cry over the child that refuses to grow up.
• We whine about the demands at work.
• We operate with polite distance with our extended family.
• We feel the strain of caring for an elderly parent.
• We grieve over the losses in the stock market.
• We fore go our personal health because of our busyness and our commitment to serving others.
• We believe happiness is inextricably linked to the opinions of others.
• We grapple over impending decisions.
• With each stressful situation, we risk getting upset, even enraged, with God.

Wouldn't a better option be to release our expectations and personal sense of urgency over to God? Wouldn't we have greater success and peace by accepting and submitting to His heavenly timetable, which must be infallable (if it is His)? Only He knows when, where, how, and why; and He doesn't always reveal this knowledge to us. But don't think of Him as holding out on you. Rather, think of His lack of revelation as a divine protection. He is never, never, never wrong; nor is He ever late. Therefore, we can still expect a miracle and wait patiently for His divine intervention.

Each of us needs to focus on the character of God in order to trust Him when things look dark and foreboding.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Proverbs 3:5,6

Murphy