A “Reminder Miracle” Not Asked For

At the end of an earlier posting entitled “Update: God’s Work”, posted on May 31, 2010, I wrote the following on miracles:

I have experienced some miracles that I know God provided to simply let me know that He is there with His hand on our shoulders guiding us, helping us, providing for us. Once I was reading the Bible. At the time my allergies were bothering me and my eyes where fogging up so badly that I couldn’t read. I closed my eyes, and prayed a simple prayer. “Lord, please clear my eyes so I can read your word.” When I opened my eyes I could see clearly. Wow. Another time, I believe it was after the fifth round of Chemo in 2006, I was sitting in my chair and my temperature began to rise. It hit 100 deg and, if it hit 101 we would call the doctor and he would have likely admitted me to the hospital as he had twice done when this happened before. Again, I closed my eyes, and simply prayed, “ Please God, not this time.” I then immediately took my temperature and it had fallen to 99 and then continued to fall to normal.

I have since come to call these types of miracles “Reminder Miracles” because they are an immediate, unquestionable and powerful response from God to me that remind me of His grace and consistent presence in our lives. I have experienced another Reminder Miracle that, interestingly, was not really prayed for. Let me explain.

The Reminder Miracles that I have received in the past were intentionally prayed for. They were a direct answer to a specific prayer for God’s immediate intervention on a specific condition. I consciously try to avoid asking for this type of intervention. My prayers to God for help are usually asking for a more long term solution to a much larger problem or condition that I have no control over such as, “If it be Your will let this cup pass from me and give me the time to finish Your work.” Or, “Lord, please allow the insurance company to approve that claim.” I tend to resist praying for God’s help for minor, day-to-day conditions that, if they persist, have no long-term consequences to my family or me.

Over the past couple of years my hands tend to cramp, sometimes quite painfully. My fingers lock up such that I cannot use them. These cramps tend to last for quite a while and they tend to come and go in succession. I was typing on the computer yesterday and suddenly my right hand cramped, and then my left hand cramped. My first thought was to ask God to relieve the cramps but in an instant decided not to since I knew that the cramps would eventually pass on their own. Quite frankly, I did not want to bother God with such a trivial request. He has more important things to do than relieve my cramps. But in the next instant the cramps immediately stopped and did not return. Wow. I never literally asked, but I received. Was it a coincidence? Maybe, but I like to think not. God has responded to my requests for help before so there is no reason to believe that He had not responded to this one. But I never really asked for help. Well, yes I did. Scripture tells us that God knows our thoughts and receives our heartfelt prayers before we speak them.

Psalm 139:1-2 -- O Lord, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.

1 Peter 5:7 -- Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.

Psalms 94:8-11 -- Understand, O dullest of the people; fools, when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, he who teaches knowledge to humankind, does He not chastise? The Lord knows our thoughts,* that they are but an empty breath.

Luke 11:9-10 -- ‘So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.'

Luke 1:37 -- For nothing will be impossible with God.

From God’s perspective I asked for help because he knows what I am thinking the moment I am thinking it. I didn’t have to “ask” in order to receive. I received a Reminder Miracle without specifically asking for it. Pretty neat. Of course, this also reminds me that God knows my not so good thoughts as well. Hmm.

God is Great. God is Good.


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