God Works In Gratitude And If You Doubt It Ask A Priest With World Fishing Record

 [adapted from The God of Miracles]

Just as subatomic particles are kept together, so are events in our lives.

God orchestrates our existence just as He orchestrates the forces in outer space. When we pray about even the smallest details, everything about us also "holds together." We are on the way to cohesion. Breakfast is perfect, the car starts right up, and people are unusually pleasant to us.

Does that mean praying about every detail will make everything smooth every time we do so? There are trials. Often, one day is excellent and the next is the opposite.

But give it a chance -- pray for every little thing before you're even out of bed, every detail you can think of -- and then keep your mind on God the rest of the day. Ask Him to direct your every move. Go through all you need, every item, and make your requests.

"Ask and you will receive," says Scripture (John 16:24) -- and often we simply forget to do that.

Don't limit yourself. Pray slowly; focus on each word; slow prayers pierce the clouds.

God is our shield and when we draw nearer to Him, we draw nearer to a sense of well-being. It's that simple.

When we do that a unity exists between night and day, life and prayer, thought and action, God and neighbor. As a friend who is a priest recently pointed out, when this order is established in our lives, peace will begin to shine like a light in our faces.

There's nothing you can do that will bring as much protection. And closeness comes through praise. It comes through thankfulness. As we feel honored by and close to those who appreciate us, so too is it with God: praise brings Him near. When you see people with arid, joyless lives, it's often because they complain.

Jesus said we can request the favor of God (Matthew 7:7-9) and this we should do knowing that if something is good for us, and in the plan of Christ -- plus asked with faith, which means in a way that is both loving and fearless -- it will be granted.  

We could call that "acknowledgement." We acknowledge His role in everything. We listen for Him. We do as He prompts. This takes us from basic faith to the level of persistence, which deepens into surrender and causes effects for which we are eternally grateful.

See how it dovetails? Surrender involves not only faith but humility, love, and appreciation -- which is extremely powerful in drawing down the God of miracles, Who is humble but wants to be appreciated; in this way does He enjoy our love. Can you blame Him? It is why we were created.

The more directly we show our gratitude, the more powerfully He intervenes.

What we receive is often in direct proportion to our thankfulness. God especially loves it if we thank Him when it doesn't seem like things are going our way.

A priest ice fishing on a frozen Canadian lake, in one of those wood-heated portable shanties, wasn't having much luck. This was January 4, 2005, near Nipawin in northern Saskatchewan on Tobin Lake. His name was Father Mariusz Zajac, and it was just before 5 p.m. when -- having put in a few fruitless hours of fishing -- he resolved to call it a day.

"I had a few nibbles but that was it, I didn't catch anything," said the Polish-born priest.

But before packing up, Father Zajac decided to recite the Canticle of Mary -- an evening prayer from the Gospel of Luke, which gives thanks to God for each day (despite the bad luck fishing).

"On these words, I got a bite," recalled the priest. A bite indeed!

As it turned out, the fish he reeled in was an 18-pound walleye. It was 36 inches long -- the world record for ice fishing!

Bigger yet was the lesson:

No matter what you may be going through -- pain, depression, worries, frustration, fruitlessness, or simple bad luck -- if you praise God He will bring you fruits.

Love Him more than you have ever loved anyone. He sends graces that defy our circumstances. He brings joy where there should be depression. You can judge closeness to God by how much joy is around a person.

There are those who are lonely. There are those in poverty. There are those with cancer. There are those with sons who are addicted to drugs. In God they find hope. A frown brings us down. In God we find gladness. It is happiness -- even in trials -- that makes the world wondrous.

"By truly understanding this and letting His Light work through us, we gain sensitivity, peace, and power that we have never experienced before," notes one healer. "We become greater than we are. We understand that which is beyond the realm of reality. And then we see miracles unfold before our very eyes. All kinds of them!"

05/05/06

originally published as godofmiracles1