Grace Is Miraculous

I was at a Bible study the other day and the pastor was talking about how his mind was not in the service because of what happened to him earlier in the day. He talked about a woman who came in to be counseled and had various manifestations of demonic activity (those are my words not his). The reason I share this is not to talk about where we stand with the demonic but, rather, our perspectives. You see, until this time, the pastor presented himself as a very conservative and orthodox man. This side of him was, well, almost charismatic. In my view, it was out of character for him.

Please do not shut me off or quit reading yet. This is not about where we stand on any of these issues. The point of this is our perspectives. It’s about how we view someone or something almost always determines how we see and listen to them. How many times have we read John chapter eight? From our present day reading of it we see Jesus telling the Jews of the day, He is the Messiah and that He came from God, among other things. From the Jewish viewpoint though, He said much more than that. In John 8:58, 59, Jesus said, “...before Abraham was, I AM” and the Jews picked up stones to throw at Him. Why? Very simply, Jesus equaled Himself to Exodus 3:14 and the burning bush. Jesus claimed to be The I AM and the Jews were going to stone Him for blasphemy. This is not the only time either. The point is, they had a different understanding than we do today.

Does this matter? Can I say, how we perceive God will determine what we think God is capable of? This does not change WHO God is at all. It does limit our understanding of Him and what we will ask and expect from Him though. If we believe that the miraculous acts of God have ceased after the time of the apostles then we will not ask God for a miracle. If we believe that God created man, the universe, and all there is, and then set it all in motion and stepped back from it to see what happened than we will not ask God to get involved in our personal, day to day lives.

Are these valid viewpoints? I can say positively that I do not think so. I do believe, however, that other people believe them and how they believe God will determine their expectations of God. It does not change WHO God is, but it determines how they believe God will do things. For these people, if God does act or intervene, then the action now becomes luck or chance, rather than a divine act that interrupts the natural order of things. A miracle. My opinion is this robs God of glory and praise.

Isn’t that what “grace” is? It’s God interrupting the natural order of our lives and giving us things we do not deserve. Grace empowers us. Grace provides for us. Grace gives us peace in the midst of the storm.

Grace is God thinking about ME in my turmoil and poverty, then acting to rescue.

I guess you could say Grace is Miraculous.

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