Answered prayer or coincidence?

In the book of Acts there is an episode where Peter was in prison.  The Christians were gathered in someone's home praying for his release.  God answered by supernaturally taking Peter out of the prison.  When he arrived at the place where the prayer meeting was happening, the people in the home told the servant girl, "You're out of your mind.  It must be his angel"!  They were asking God for a miracle, but when he answered they didn't believe it.

I've had that problem from time to time.  Yesterday, in fact.

Louise and I were heading out of town for a couple days after the Sunday morning service.  I shut down our computer Saturday night.  I realized Sunday morning that I needed it for something, but when I turned it on it booted to a certain point and then nothing would work.  I could tell that the mouse and keyboard and screen were functioning, but other than that, nothing.  I shut it down and tried again, and again.  It was time for church so off we went.  Later we stopped at home briefly before heading out of town and I tried again.  Nothing.  Again.

That was a pretty big deal.  This computer contains many hours of research and documents in preparation for this weekend's leadership training session, and the first two weeks of our Christian Living Academy.  And even though I should know better, I hadn't backed any of it up yet.

We left for a couple of fun days away, but in my mind I was thinking of the huge amount of work in front of me if we got home to a computer that wouldn't work.  So as we were driving I prayed.  I don't know if your theology allows for the healing of computers, but I sure wanted God to solve this problem for me.

When we got home yesterday the first thing I did after carrying in our stuff was to turn on the computer.  I left it for a couple minutes and came back to a computer than was working perfectly normally!  I was so happy, and I said to Louise, "I wonder what happened?".  

Yes, that's what I said.  I was praying for Peter to be miraculously released from prison and when it happened I thought it was his angel.  Do you do that too?  Do you sometimes pray for something and when God answers chalk it up to coincidence or something else?  Over my life I have seen God answer prayer too many times to count.  I've been healed twice.  There have been financial miracles for us personally and for our ministry.  God has supernaturally provided guidance, provided safety, dealt with problems while we were traveling in ministry, worked out unworkable logistical issues, and much more.  If I were to describe in detail all the times God has intervened and performed miracles in our lives and ministry it would take a book.  

After all of that I can still see God's answers to prayers and ask, "hmmm, I wonder what happened?".  I absolutely believe God can do anything, but when he does I still have this tendency to question whether it was really him.   After all the amazing "coincidences" I've seen I really should know better.

The good news is that soon after saying "I wonder what happened", it hit me what I was doing.  The fact is God intervened, like he has so many times before.  I want to acknowledge that and thank him for stepping in once again.  This problem wasn't life threatening or even life changing.  If my computer had not worked at worst it could be described as a major inconvenience.  Yet God was interested in that part of my life too, and he answered my prayer.  

When I have a struggle or weakness of some kind, I suspect there are at least a few others out there with the same problem.  So let me ask you, have you ever chalked up God's miracles to coincidence, or "the doctor must have got it wrong", or something else that explains away the hand of God?  I encourage you (and me) to give God the credit and the praise for working in our lives, as he does on a daily basis.

"Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you."  1 Peter 5:7 (NLT)