Date: 02-28-15
The Big Idea: Lifestyle worshiper, let us not miss the miracle that the LORD will surely bless you with.
My Thoughts: “What if the miracle never comes?” This is what the enemy wants you to ask. With his slithering, slippery tongue, he hisses doubts in your ear. He wants you to buy the lie that the LORD is withholding something good from you. Oh, sadly, I have often listened to this hiss….
But, Lifestyle worshiper, perhaps our definition of “miracle” needs to be refined. Oh, it is still something beyond what we could achieve. It is still something beyond what we could think or imagine, but perhaps it is also something beyond what we can perceive—at least for the moment, and maybe even in this life. Now I know that this may sound like a copout of sorts, but if we have a predetermined “miracle” that we are looking for, won’t this make it harder to see the actual miracle the LORD has provided? We will miss seeing it because we are looking for something quite different.
The other day I was looking for the vacuum cleaner at the church. It is helpful to know that there are actually three vacuum cleaners, but I was looking for the vacuum cleaner. So I asked the person I was working with: “Where’s the vacuum cleaner?” With a wry smile and a soft giggle, she gently said, “Ah, right in front of you.” I was amazed: I couldn’t see the ‘other’ vacuum cleaner literally in front of me, and yet as I had panned the room, I missed it. Why? Because I had a predetermined picture in my mind as to what the vacuum cleaner ‘ought’ to look like….
Lifestyle worshiper, let us not miss the miracle that the Lord will surely bless you and me with. Oh, and join me in ignoring the hiss of that sly snake….
Main Text: — Nehemiah 6:15-16, 19 — 15 So the wall was completed on the twenty-fifth day of Elul in 52 days.16 When all of our enemies—including the surrounding nations—heard this, they became very discouraged, since they saw that the work had been done by our God…. 19 Furthermore, they kept reporting Tobiah’s good deeds to me, and kept repeating what I told him. Tobiah kept sending letters to intimidate me. [ISV]
Additional Scriptures to Renew Your Thoughts
— Psalm 34:9-10 (NIV84)
—Psalm 84:11 (NIV84)
He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? — Romans 8:32 (NIV84)
Lord Jesus Christ, as I patiently wait for the blessing of Your Goodness towards me, open my eyes to see the ‘miracles’ already before me. Deaden my ears to the hissing lies of the sly snake. By Your Blood and in Your Name, Amen.
Pastor Mike