Is a miracle huge--or tiny?

Have you ever felt so discouraged that you thought only a miracle could turn your life around?

If that's the case, maybe you need to rethink your definition of a miracle. These stunning events can be big or small, everyday happenings or once-in-a-lifetime changes.

Maybe you're hung up on the kinds of signs that you read about in the Bible--like God parting the Red Sea or Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. Those wonders are easy to spot.

But have you ever considered the astonishing events that happen to you every day? Have you overlooked the supernatural because you wouldn't accept anything less than earthshaking?

God won't fit into your box

Don't limit God by telling him how to do things. Worse yet, don't believe that God only intervened in ancient times but he doesn't do that today. His help in your life and in the lives of your friends and family is more far-reaching than you've imagined.

Like Gideon, we want to impose conditions on God. If this happens, then I'll know you're involved. Or if that doesn't happen, then I'll know you want me to take a different path.

Scientists will tell you miracles don't happen. They're skeptical of anything they can't measure, record, analyze or duplicate. Something unexplainable doesn't fit their preconceived notion of how the world should work.

But believers know better. We know that God makes the rules, not scientists. So if he wants to break them, that's his business.

If you want to get at the truth, the real truth, as scientists claim they want to, then you know that everything can't be figured out. Sorry, scientists. You may think you're smarter than God, but you're not.

Back to your miracle

So many times in my past, I prayed that God would change circumstances or other people. Looking back, I see that the real miracle happened when God changed me.

When you finally realize that God's way is better than your way, that's a miracle.
When after an entire lifetime, you stop sabotaging your own efforts, that's a miracle.
When you reach rock bottom and God gives you the courage and strength to climb out and stand on your own two feet again, that's a miracle too.

God wants us to pray big prayers. A big God welcomes big prayers. And he will grant you a miracle--just as long as you don't tell him how to do it.

Food for Thought is a series of short, tightly focused messages to get you thinking about your life.