Tuesday, September 15, 2015

A Prayer For a Miracle Was Found In Thankfulness


PRAYER is powerful as any ardent Christian knows. A miracle-believing Christian (is there any other kind?) prayed for me that I’d receive a miracle that he prayed I’d receive — by the end of that day… I got it about ten minutes before that day’s end! And I wasn’t even expecting it. Only as I looked back, in the moment, could I see God’s gracious provision! God is very good; better than we could even imagine.
It came in the form of an innocent-enough conversation. When one considers the reality of our life of comparison with others we often compare what we don’t have. I had the opportunity to glimpse the weight of blessing that I do have, and God made an impression on me in the instant. The fact is I have people I know and love all around me. This other person has not one soul of kin anywhere within several thousand miles. God had me committing to pray for this person, who, in my view, is so courageous.
Who is the thankful one?
They’re the one who’s free,
Found often on bended knee,
Thanking the holy Son.
So there I was, in conversation with a person who had comparatively nothing, family-wise, and my life was so rich with familial blessing. Was this person any less concerned about worries for family members? I think they must have been more concerned, at least from my perspective looking in from the viewpoint of my life into theirs. Was there loneliness on their part? A loneliness that I’d rarely been exposed to. Did they have hopes for reconciling their loneliness? Of course, but those hopes can seem awful faint at times. And the greatest hopes, though faintest, as beacons of faith, may still never come to pass. Courage.
The fact is I don’t often enough count my blessings — and I don’t mean actually count them numerically. I mean, to be mindful of those things we all have the propensity for discounting as ‘normal’ to life. They only appear normal because we have become used to them.
Thankfulness is grace,
Sight magnified of blessing,
Gratitude for the confessing,
Found seeking the Son’s face.
Thankfulness is grace. It’s the portion of favour seen in the everyday throes of life taken for granted. When sight is magnified to actually see with true sight — God-sight — we see what we may have often missed. Then it’s gratitude we ought to confess, drawing close to the Saviour’s face.
Thankfulness causes gratitude to overflow and everyday blessings to be known.
The happy, contented life of joy is all about the sweeping vistas of perspective. Put into correct view, life is good. Such is God.
Sit content in gratitude and know thankfulness. That’s spirituality at its finest.
© 2015 Steve Wickham.

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