What is Your Understanding on Miracle?

I came back from Kota Kinabalu on Friday falling sick. But I couldn't really rest as I needed to catch up on some work, prepare for MPC (Marriage Preparation Course) on Saturday and prepare for prayer & service leading on Sunday. My parents were also around in Singapore thus it was important that I spent time with them as much as I could.

At a point of time I was wondering about my time management. My parents are usually around in Singapore after LC. I knew this fact well. But why didn't I swap my MPC or/and service leading slots with others? I was wondering about this for awhile. Anyway, there was no time to be indulged in self pity. I just had to do what I could.

Interestingly, several other things went wrong:

* I couldn't find one of my MPC lessons' notes. I needed to redo that lesson all over again.

* My office laptop somehow couldn't project out the slides for the MPC lesson.

* The hard disk of our laptop at home crashed. This is the only computer at home that can be connected to a printer. It means that I couldn't print my script for my service leading.

* I was quite busy during LC thus spent very little time with them during LC. How would they feel that even after LC I couldn't spend time with them still?

However God was good. He gave me a miracle.

* I redid the missing MPC lesson notes pretty quickly. Somehow, I remembered the details in the missing notes quite well.

* Simon was in church office (the MPC venue) on Saturday and he somehow brought his brand new laptop with him. He kindly lent me his notebook for the MPC lesson. It worked wonderfully.

* Cui Qin, our neigbour, kindly helped me print the documents I needed for Sunday. She actually went out from her house to meet me in a bus stop to pass me the documents on Saturday after midnight.

* My parents were very understanding and supportive. They didn't say a single word of complaint about my lack of availability to spend time them. (I spent time with them last night. I am spending the majority of today with them as well)

* Lean Choo, my wife, was extremely supportive throughout the weekend. She is usually supportive but she was extremely supportive during the weekend. She actually felt very bad that she couldn't do very much to help me with what I had to do.

* When I went to see a doctor in after MPC the queue was so short. I completed my visit very quickly. I usually go to this same clinic and they usually have a long queue.

* God gave me the strength to go through MPC teaching on Sat. My mind was pretty clear and engaged throughout. On Sun, I could woke very early despite the fact that I was sick and slept late. I arrived in Nexus by 7.30am for the prayer meeting before the pre-service prayer meeting. God gave me the strength for prayer leading and for the service leading in both services as well. Immediately after the second service chairing I felt quite weak and couldn't focus very much listening to the sermon. The drop of fitness and energy level came at the right time, meaning after I had completed what I had to do.

I want to thank God for the mini miracle He gave over the weekend.

This incident has taught me a lesson as well. Many times when we ask God for a miracle we have a pre-conceived idea on how God will perform the miracle. But the Bible tells us that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. (Isaiah 55)

Have you been praying for a miracle? What is your understanding on miracle today? Are you limiting God by that understanding? Perhaps God has given you the miracle that you are asking for but it is in His way and not your way. If this is indeed the case, would care to notice it and would you join me to give thanks to God for loving us and for giving us the miracle?