She suffered most of her teenage and young adult life with a debilitating whiplash injury to her neck. She could not turn her head right to left or lift her chin up to look at the clouds. If she forgot, she would be in extreme pain and would have to wear a heavy neck collar. Many times, she asked for God to heal her, and she even had the elders pray over her.
I don’t know what was different about this time, but I remember, as an eight-year-old, watching my mom go forward at the end of a Sunday evening worship service to ask for prayer over her neck. My dad, who was the pastor, gathered the elders around her. As she knelt, they laid hands on her and began to pray. She felt a tingling go through her body, starting from her head down to her toes. When the prayer was over, she lifted her chin for the first time since she was a child and looked at my dad with tears in her eyes. Instantly, she was healed!
Keep on praying for miracles.
Never give up. Don’t lose hope.
Trust that our God always knows what’s best, and He always answers!
This is just one of many miracles that I have had the privilege of witnessing in my life. I do believe that miracles are for today and that we need to be asking for them! Even if you have never personally witnessed or experienced a miracle, you can still pray for them. Why? Because God is still in the business of restoration and healing. We know that:
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Jesus is the same always and forever (Hebrews 13:8), so if He performed miracles in the Bible, he will today.
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God does not change (Malachi 3:6, James 1:17), meaning His character and desire for salvation and for completeness is the same.
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He will keep His promises (Numbers 23:19), so we can trust Him in all things.
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He is always good, faithful, and loving, no matter what (Psalms 100:5), and He wants the best for us (Jeremiah 29:11, Matthew 7:11).
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He is an all-powerful God, capable of anything (Psalm 147:5, Matthew 19:26, Jeremiah 32:17).
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God heals our mind, body, and spirit (Psalm 147:3, 1 Peter 2:24, Psalm 41:3, Matthew 11:28, Psalm 34:15-21).
We are called to pray for each other, and our prayers are powerful and effective (read James 5:13-16). So, pray BIG! Even if your faith is small, God hears the prayers of the righteous (Proverbs 15:29). But what do we do when God does not answer our prayers the way we asked Him to?
My mom, whom God healed many years ago, died at age 68 from myelodysplasia, a cancer of the blood, even though thousands of people were praying for her healing, and some even prophesied that she would be healed! Honestly, I wrestled with that, and it took many tears and conversations with God to get to a place of acceptance of His will. But the truth was that mom WAS healed, just not on earth. I learned that I could trust that God knows best, even if I didn’t understand the ‘why?’ He is all-knowing; I am not. It is not my job to heal; it is my job to pray big and trust in the Sovereignty of my God, to hold on to the truth of Who He Is, and to keep moving forward in my journey with Him.
Keep on praying for miracles. Never give up. Don’t lose hope. Trust that our God always knows what’s best, and He always answers! He will sustain you through the waiting, grow you in your relationship with Him, and use you to teach others how to remain faithful and live in God’s continual grace.
