I Believe In Miracles

 Almost 6 months ago, our dear prophet, President Russell M Nelson, pleaded with us to increase our faith so we can move mountains.  I was intrigued by his talk.  I've always loved the scriptures that reference your faith can move mountains and I've always wondered how I could increase my faith in that way.  My favorite author, Emily Belle Freeman started an institute class on this and so I joined.  She knows how to lay out the scriptures in a way that they become so real to me and easier to understand.  So for the last 6 months I've been studying, trying my hardest to increase my faith.

Even before this deep study, I've always believed in miracles.  Studying the miracles of Christ is always my favorite.  And now we have The Chosen, which shows us Christ's miracles.  No matter if I'm reading the stories or watching the stories, I have no doubt that they happened.  I feel the stories testify to me of their reality.  

This last year we had the opportunity to watch a great miracle in regards to the Covid-19 virus.  We all fasted and prayed for a miracle when we were shut down.  We received that miracle when less then a year later a vaccine was developed to help us!  

I've also had many miracles happen to me personally that I knew God had not stopped performing miracles.  My daughter Hope is one of my greatest miracles in my life.  There were many times throughout her pregnancy we should have lost her.  But I fervently prayed and pleaded with the Lord that we could keep her.  And time after time during her pregnancy the miracles happened.

Even with my personal miracles, somehow in the most recent years I've accepted some form of laxity of miracles.  Meaning, I was okay and knew they needed to be performed for those around me, but I didn't think I could receive them anymore.  I didn't feel my faith was strong enough for myself to receive miracles again.  After my car wreck I was told in a blessing I would be healed completely with no side affects of the wreck.  We are almost 6 years out from the blessing and though I'm healing, I have not been completely healed.  And somehow I've let that shake my faith enough to not ask for immediate or complete miracles anymore.

Have you ever let something shake your faith that you were afraid to ask for another miracle?  How did you overcome that?  

This week I was given an opportunity to bolster my faith of personal miracles once again!  I've been studying faith all year.  I've been trying my hardest to increase my faith so I could see miracles again, and yet I realized, I still wasn't asking for my miracles.

Abree has been having an amazing year in gymnastics.  She's been learning and growing in ways that is beyond exciting.  And then about a month ago injury struck again.  She was initially okay, but as weeks have gone on it's been getting worse and worse.  So much that her practices are really limited.  

Next Saturday she has the opportunity to participate in a college showcase for gymnastics.  This is a big deal.  It's the start of being able to be spotted by a college and get on the colleges' radar.  But with this injury and not being able to really do her skills, her coaches and I began debating if we can even send her.

I didn't think much of it other then, that stinks but we'll just go next year.  But the Lord had other plans :)  Can I just say, I LOVE when he has other plans!!  His ways are definitely better than our ways.

As I was getting ready for my day, I kept having the impression to pray for Abree to have a miracle.  I brushed it aside.  She needs to pray for her own miracle.  Plus, every time we've prayed for miracles for my children's injuries it still takes months for them to heal.  But yet the impression continued.  I happened to be reading my scriptures in Enos that morning.  As I listened to him wrestling with the Lord for the desires of his heart, I knew what I needed to do.  And so I got on my knees and pleaded with the Lord for Abree to have her miracle.  It was more me pleading for my own miracle that the miracle would happen. 

I won't go into details of that moment on my knees, but it is a moment most sacred and one that I will always remember.  My relationship with the Lord changed that day.  I felt like the dad in the Bible asking the Lord to heal his unbelief.  I had the faith to kneel down, but I needed the help to believe that the miracle would happen and would happen completely and immediately.  

The Lord not only healed Abree this week, he also healed me!  He healed my heart to believe again.  He healed the doubt that was in my heart.  He healed the criticism I've held onto for so many years now.  The greatest miracle happened to me - a change of heart!

I learned that all I need to do is ask!  I can't be afraid of the outcome.  I can't be afraid of the Lord's timing.  I need to ask for that complete and instant healing and then trust when it comes it's at the time we most need it.

Elder Rasband in his April 2021 General Conference talk called "Behold! I am a God of Miracles" said, "Miracles can come as answers to prayer.  They are not always what we ask for or what we expect, but when we trust in the Lord, He will be there, and He will be right.  he will suit the miracle to the moment we need it."

"The Lord performs miracles to remind us of His power, His love for us, His reach from the heavens to our mortal experience, and His desire to teach of that which is of most worth."

The Bible Dictionary says, "....they are simply works, or the natural results of the Messiah's presence among men;"

God loves us so much that he is waiting to give us miracles!!!  His is a God of miracles!  He loves us so much and wants to shower us with all the miracles he can.  It is up to us to plead and ask for those miracles.  Sometimes they come instantly and sometimes they come in time.  But either way - THEY COME!!  Don't let the non instant miracles shake your faith.  Don't let the wait make you doubt and not ask again.  Ask and continue to ask!!   He has beautiful and sacred moments waiting for us if we will just ask!