By This week, I have been re-reading a book as I co-facilitate a Spiritual Leadership group at my church, and of course one of the things that sticks out for me is from day 1 of the reading. Since I do not have my notes with me from the first time, I don’t know if I even noticed it the last time. The quote that has me sitting back, my mind blow? “We have become practical atheists, believing God can perform miracles but never expecting a miracle in our own lives.” I don’t know about you, but that quote definitely gut checked me.
How often can we tell other people about how good God is? How often do we believe in miracles for others? How often do we to even ask for the miracle in our own life?
I am so blessed this week to be staying with a dear friend, who can see where God needs to move for me, even when I can’t see it. I am in Michigan this week gathering data for my dissertation. The first day I was gathering data, I came home discouraged knowing I only made it through about 20 files, knowing that from what I remembered I needed close to 250 for significance in my study. I am only here through Friday so I was doing math in my head, and what I could figure, there was no way I was going to get through enough files. As I was explaining this, she asked some questions about things that could help, which none of would work in this situation. Then she stopped and prayed, and she declared the miracle for me. She reminded me of the verse in Luke 1:37 “For with God nothing will be impossible.”
You know the funniest thing happened the next day, I made it through far more cases than the first day, and I had a peace, knowing that I can only go through the cases that are there, and if there is not 250 it will be ok, it will just give opportunity for future research. For my dissertation, it will not keep it from being finished. I did have to make sure when I started to get overwhelmed or discouraged that I would remind myself that with God nothing is impossible and trust that God would help me get through the files. So today for me starts day 3 of going through files and I know that God is going to help me to make it through them all.
Hey Beth! I’m intrigued to know what your dissertation is about. Sifting through 250 files sounds like a lot of hard work! I pray you get everything done you need to do, and that everything goes well with your studies moving forward. Blessings, Steven 🙏🏻
Yes! “Practical atheists” really struck me too! How often do I believe for others, and see the results, but not for myself!
Thank you for sharing you experience with believing and feeling the peace and progress that came with it. I am inspired!
Funny I don’t think I noticed it the last time