Series: Dog Daze
Daniel 4:1-3 ESV
What a turn-about for the King AND His kingdom!
While signs and wonders are included throughout scripture, this account had particular meaning.
In Daniel 4:1-3 it was proclaimed by the King, “King Nebuchadnezzar to all peoples, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you! It has seemed good to me to show the signs and wonders that the Most High God has done for me.
How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders!His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion endures from generation to generation.”
For many years in ministry as we moved from church to church I was never sure what my roles would be in our new congregation. As the Pastor’s wife there weren’t really any specific roles I was expected to fill. Very early in ministry (when I was twenty something) I did youth ministry and I taught a weekly Bible Study to jr. high and high school youth.
I loved teaching that group and I thought that might be where I always taught.
In our next church there wasn’t a need for another teacher in the youth group, but I noticed there was an opening in women’s Sunday School so that was where I taught.
I’m not sure how it came about but at that same church I also started doing a children’s sermon during church. The children would come to the front and sit on the platform for about five to ten minutes. The children’s sermon was always applicable with the daily sermon text.
I loved doing the children’s Sermon because it not only gave me a connection to the children, it opened the door to making the gospel message that day understandable to children. Because children are ‘touchy feely’ I often had some object that went along with the sermon.
As we moved from church to church for twenty years I taught many age groups of children or women’s classes but I always did a children’s sermon as part of the regular church service.
Through the years I saw and heard about many miracles that God did through those short five minute sermons. I do not now and did not then attribute those miracles to my sermons.
See, every week when I prayed about what the children’s sermon would be about, I spent time listening to God. I waited for God to show me what God had for us. I knew I was just the mouthpiece and God provided the content.
The uncanny element is that in all that time I knew maybe five times what the sermon was going to be about. Ninety nine percent of the time God gave it to me as I was walking to the front. The only indication that I was given was what object I was supposed to take to church that morning. I had no idea what the object I had in my hands was going to exhibit.
I have to admit there were times when I was very nervous because as the children gathered in the front and sat on the floor on the platform and I moved to the front from the choir loft, I could NOT make a connection in my mind with the object I had in my mind.
The miracle that came every every every time is that God never failed to show up.
People used to ask me where I got my ideas…was it from a specific book or a collection of children’s sermons and I always told them I didn’t consult books. I told them I just prayed.
The ONLY preparation I did every week was prayer.
It was God who provided the miracle.
Because of God’s faithfulness (and gentle patience with me) I gradually learned to trust that God had not failed me and would not fail me.
God did not ever fail to provide a children’s sermon.
So, while some miracles we read about are big scale and grand, I gradually learned that even today, every day God will provide a miracle.
I pray.
God provides.
Thank you that when I was twenty years old and I had no idea how to start putting together a children’s sermon for church that my da told me, “just pray and God will provide”. I trusted my dad (me da) and while I thought that was a little crazy, I did what he told me to do. It certainly has been a crazy journey!
Recently I’ve been praying for God to show up for some time in a specific area, and today I was given a miracle.
Thank you. Thank you God for the miracle.
Thank you God for showing up.
In scripture we read about many miracles and signs and wonders God did.
The miraculous miracle of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace was proclaimed by the leader of a mighty nation. All the people in his kingdom KNEW about the wonders of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob!
It was a miracle that had the power to change a nation.
But who is to say what God can and does do today?
Because of that I pray.
I ask God for a miracle.
I ask that God will speak truth and show the way to share the miracle of His love and grace. Fifty years after I gave my first children’s sermon when I had no idea what God wanted me to talk about, I look back and I am amazed by God’s faithfulness.
Today my words from God have taken on a new look. Now instead of giving a sermon in church down front, I write. I pray and wait for God to show me the way. There are times when I sit staring at a blank page for a bit, but just like with the children’s sermons God always shows up. I pray. I wait. God never fails.
Spiritual Practice: Pray
Don’t stress if you have a problem or a request. Just pray, wait, and listen. God WILL show up!
In God, Deborah
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