A miracle happens when resources are depleted, all hope seems lost, and circumstances seem impossible. By definition, it’s an event that surpasses all understanding. If we could comprehend or accomplish it in our strength, it wouldn’t be a miracle. It wouldn’t require faith and it wouldn’t be a God thing. 

Miracles and logic can’t dwell together. Stop looking for understanding and miracles in the same place. Do you want the miracle, or do you want your circumstances to make sense? God math doesn’t make sense, Gideon. The miracle makes it undeniable that God’s hand is in it.

Some scenarios in which miracles have taken place in the Bible:

• God allowed the crisis to fully develop before revealing the solution (parting of the Red Sea)
• Provision arrived exactly when needed and was just enough to sustain the Israelites (manna in the wilderness)
• Provision came from seemingly impossible or unexpected sources (water from a rock in the wilderness, ravens supplying food to Elijah during a severe drought and famine)
• After resources were exhausted (widow at Zarephath used her last bit of flour and oil to feed Elijah before she fed herself and her son, then God ensured the flour and oil wouldn’t run out during the remainder of the drought)
• When resources fell short (feeding of the 5,000 with five loaves and 2 fish)
• When human ability and expertise fell short (Peter et al fished all night and caught nothing then Jesus told them to let down their nets again)
• After death seemed to have the final say (Jairus’ daughter, Lazarus, Jesus)
• Deliverance seems unlikely (the angel freed Peter from prison the night before his execution)

Our limitations, weakness, insufficiency, and crisis are the stage for divine provision, not a grave for our demise. It is in the critical moments that God’s faithfulness is unmistakable. The difficulty has a purpose – to do a deeper work in and through me. In seeking and communing with God, I can maintain a hopeful and faithful perspective in the midst of difficulty. I can have joy and peace in each day even in the uncertainty. God’s job is the “how,” so there is no need for me to worry about provision or to limit how God will provide. He has infinite ways to provide far beyond my understanding, so obsessing over how and when He’s going to provide wouldn’t even be a prudent use of my time. My job is the surrender, the diligence, and the discernment. God is not asking me to give what I lack in this season; He’s asking me to entrust what I already possess, however small it may seem. In whatever circumstances I face, I always have the opportunity to give my heart, time, capacity, and available resources to God for His use. He’ll sustain or multiply them however He sees fit. A staff, a jar of oil, a sling shot and 5 stones, 5 loaves and 2 fish, and empty fishing nets can yield the miraculous when we surrender them to Him. Scarcity is not a barrier to God’s work. It’s the vessel for His glory.

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Miracles and logic can’t dwell together.