Monday, February 27, 2006

Mark 8:11-13

Recognizing God’s Presence

Jesus had just miraculously fed the multitude, yet the Pharisees demanded more signs, more miracles. Like them, we sometimes fix our hopes on miraculous events; our ship to coming in so that all our financial woes would disappear in a moment, or our wheelchair-bound friend getting up to walk again. Jesus is just as able to do those things as he was to feed the five thousand, but what about the fact that the sun rises each morning or that God has given us new birth into a living hope through what Jesus did on the cross? Aren’t those things manifestations of his miraculous power?
We see signs of God’s presence everywhere: in a bank of daffodils, in the encouraging words of a friend, in the gentle rain, in the ways he provides all we need. We don’t need a miraculous sign – we just need Jesus! Ask him to help you to recognize anew the ways in which he is with you, for you are never outside his Spirit, who lives in you. Ask him to give you glimpses of his nature and character wherever you go and to turn your heart toward him in gratitude. (from the One Year Book of Praying through the Bible)

WE NEED NEVER TO SHOUT ACROSS THE SPACES TO AN ABSENT GOD. HE IS NEARER THAN OUR OWN SOUL, CLOSER THAN OUR MOST SECRET THOUGHTS. (A.W. Tozer 1897-1963)

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