Ordinary Miracles

 Ordinary Miracles

March 27, 2025

Acts 19:11-12 - Miracles at Ephesus

11 God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body tothe sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out.

Acts 8:12-13

12 But when they believed Philip preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were being baptized, men and women alike. 13 Even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was constantly amazed.

Last night at our Wednesday Bible study, Pastor Kjell was teaching on power evangelism, and he made an interesting comment about Acts 19. It says there that Paul performed extraordinary miracles at Ephesus. That brings up the question, “what are ordinary miracles?”. Similarly, in Acts 8 it records where Philip’s preaching was accompanied by signs and great miracles. So if there are great miracles, are there small miracles?

When you consider life, and I mean when you closely examine how are bodies live, it is an ordinary miracle. I studied biophysics at one time, and we studied the biochemistry of cells and the operation of DNA and other biological molecules. The living cell is a complex and wonderful machine. Each cell can take in oxygen and nutrients and convert them to living matter. It is a complex and wonderful balance of interrelated biochemical reactions, not one of which could  work without the others. It is inconceivable that any of the biochemical cycles in the living cell could have just evolved by happenstance as no one part can work without all of the others being in place. This is an ordinary miracle. Every moment and every day, we life and work without thinking about all the activity going on in our cells that keeps us alive. Perhaps, if we though a little more about it, we would feed ourselves better and not eat so much junk food that is all around us. But even with that abuse, our bodies remain remarkable healthy in most cases. Disease and disability is the exception, and that is a miracle.

God created our bodies to be healthy, so it should not surprise us that He commands us to pray for the sick. We consider it an extraordinary miracle when a grave illness is cured by prayer, but why are we surprised by that? It is our commission to preach the gospel to all the world and call the dying back to life. It should be a normal part of evangelism to pray for the sick and see them healed. The extraordinary should become ordinary as we see the Lord restore bodies back to the ordinary miracle of healthy life. It’s only extraordinary if we cease expecting the Lord to do great things. So today, expect the Lord to do ordinary miracles every time you take a breath and expect extraordinary miracles when you pray for the sick and see their diseased bodies return to the ordinary miracle of life.