By Michael H. Brown 

Without God, without an interaction with Him, there is decay, not “evolution.”

Everything that grows and reproduces (instead of deteriorating) is a miracle.

Just as subatomic particles are kept together, so are events in our lives.

God orchestrates our existence just as He orchestrates the forces in outer space. When we pray about even the smallest details, everything about us also “holds together.” We are on the way to cohesion. Breakfast is perfect, the car starts right up, and people are unusually pleasant to us.

Does that mean praying about every detail will make everything smooth every time we do so? There are trials. Often, one day is excellent and the next is the opposite.

But give it a chance – pray for every little thing before you’re even out of bed, every detail you can think of — and then keep your mind on God the rest of the day. Ask Him to direct your every move. Go through all you need, every item, and make your requests.

“Ask and you will receive,” says Scripture (John 16:24) – and often we simply forget to do that.

Don’t limit yourself. Ask Jesus to be with you and in you. Pray fully. Slow, heartfelt prayers pierce the clouds.

Jesus loves our requests and He loves to bless.

Two roses?

How about a dozen?

But we have to ask, and we also have to answer His call. While it’s true that God knows what we need before we request it, He likes to hear it from us. It opens a channel. When we feel down, when we have problems and needs, we must pray with the knowing that if it’s right for us (if it’s correct in the larger picture only He can see), He will grant it. If it is His Will, or at least something that is not against His Will, matters will “click.”

When that happens He is really speaking to us! We know such is true when there is no strain and events unfold like the leaves of a plant — organically. Sometimes it’s beneficial to note these occurrences in a diary, because the more we notice them, the more our faith grows, the more we surrender, the more future prayers are answered.

Surrender means to yield to a higher power.

Whose power is more effective, yours or His?

Once we view life in such a context – noting all the times that God has answered a prayer — we are living a life of miracles. Just keep in mind that everything is in God’s Providence — when we bring it into His Providence.

We could call that “acknowledgment.” We acknowledge His role in everything. We listen for Him. We do as He prompts. This takes us from basic faith to the level of persistence, which deepens into surrender and causes effects for which we are eternally grateful.

See how it all dovetails? Surrender involves not only faith but humility and love.

That brings us to appreciation, which is extremely powerful in drawing down the God of miracles – Who is humble but wants to be appreciated; in this way does He enjoy our love.

The more directly we show our gratitude, the more powerfully He intervenes.

Of course, thanking God should not be done for that reason. Our main motive must be affection for Him. When He holds back His response, it is often to test our motives, so it is always important to examine our motivation. Are our lives oriented toward God? Are we functioning at the station in life He assigned to us? Have we surrendered? Are we appreciative? Are we living for Him or ourselves?

Those are crucial questions, for God has no trouble discerning motives and doesn’t respond to the wrong ones.

Ungratefulness blocks grace because it’s an indication that we think we brought the good upon ourselves or think we deserve whatever it is we have received, that we “had it coming,” when really we deserve nothing.

The Lord wants to know if we are loyal and have surrendered and this is seen when we are appreciative. “Oh give thanks to the Lord, call upon His name,” says 1 Chronicles 16:8. “Save us, O God of our salvation, and gather us and deliver us from the nations, to give thanks to Your Holy Name.”

“I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all Your wonders,” says Psalms 26:7 “I will praise the Name of God with song, and magnify Him with thanksgiving.”

Hover over the word “wonders”: By my count, it’s used more than sixty times in the Bible and wonders are what “attested” to the supernatural nature of Jesus. It told us He was Who He said He was.

Hover too over the verb “magnify”:

The more grateful we are, the larger God looms.

Thank Him for your life, your friends, your children, your spouse, your parents, home, food, work, everything in life, every day, and through the day, and the miracles will grow. Why is thanksgiving so powerful? It is a verbalization of faith. “Always giving thanks,” says Ephesians 5:20, “for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father”!

Praise and thanks to God throughout the day makes it a blessed day even if it doesn’t happen to be an easy one.

[adapted from The God of Miracles]