Missionaries come to our churches bringing extraordinary stories of God’s miraculous provisions. We marvel that God does such wonders in distant lands, but accept that our ordinary lives can never be so amazing.
Yet the power of God is the same in America as it is in Africa or China. The same swell of extraordinary power can roll down our street that sweeps down the streets of Calcutta or Rio de Janeiro.
All it takes is the presence of God, and the ordinary can become extraordinary.
Follow along as we look at five examples Luke gives us of the ordinary becoming something much, much more.
In Luke 1:10-17 Zacharias was performing his normal duties as was his custom, and an angel appeared to him, telling him he would have a son who would turn the children of Israel unto the Lord.
This son was to be John the Baptist.
It started out an ordinary day for Zacharias, but when God stepped in, it became an extraordinary one.
In Luke 6:10 Jesus called unto the man with the withered limb:
“Stretch forth your hand.”
The request was simple, but the healing was anything but. The Scriptures say that the man’s hand was restored as whole as the other.
It was an ordinary request, but when the crippled man obeyed, the results were extraordinary.
In Luke 6:19 Jesus had just come down from the mountain after a time in prayer. A multitude gathered around him. Verse 19 tells us they reached out to touch him, and great power went from him. In that moment, every one of them was healed.
The touch of the multitude was an ordinary one, but their faith turned the touch into an extraordinary one.
In Luke 7 we find the story of the centurion. He sent his friends to Jesus in his stead, for the centurion felt unworthy. The request he made of Jesus was an ordinary one healers listened to all the time.
“Please heal my treasured servant.”
However, this time was different, for the centurion placed his trust in Jesus’ authority, telling him that if the Master just spoke the word, his servant would be healed.
Jesus was amazed at the centurion’s faith. He spoke to the crowd, telling them that not one in Israel had such faith as this. Luke 7:10 tells us that when the centurion’s friends returned home, they found the servant healed.
The centurion’s request had been an ordinary one, but Jesus’ response was an extraordinary one.
In Luke 5:31, when the Scribes and the Pharisees asked Jesus why he associated with the publicans and the sinners, he replied:
“The healthy do not need a physician, only those who are sick.”
It was an ordinary answer, but when Jesus spoke, the words became extraordinary, for they told of his mission on this earth. He had come to save the sinners of this world.
We don’t have to go to the mission field to know the extraordinary power of God. All we have to do is live our ordinary lives, and when God steps in, our world will become extraordinary. People will see his power in us, and they will come to salvation in Jesus.
What we do in ourselves can only be ordinary. What God does through us will be extraordinary.
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