Miracles

Asking God for the miracles He already wants to give you...

Oh man…this world.

As I’ve wrestled with what to share here, my heart is filled with trepidation. I’ve had something I’ve been wanting to write about for over a year now, but I haven’t been sure how to approach it. I’m still not.

Miracles. Something I need right now. Perhaps you do too.

I think part of what makes miracles hard to talk about is their seeming randomness. Or maybe it’s our inability to control when, how, or even if a miracle happens. Is it supposed to be that way, or is this due to our lack of following the laws that govern miracles?

Sometimes they come without us even asking.

Sometimes they come in the very moment we ask.

Sometimes it seems like some experience miracle upon miracle while others…silence upon silence.

But what about when our need seems so intense, so urgent, sometimes even life or death? In such moments, when there truly is no one else to turn to, we pour our hearts out to God and hope what we’re asking for is what He is willing to give. When it seems as if “no” or “not now” is the answer, discouragement and even despair come easily.

• I’m trying to save my marriage, but it seems like that’s only what I want.

• My child is rejecting everything they were taught. Isn’t there a promise somewhere that says they “won’t depart” if they were raised in the gospel?

• I’ve been sick for so long. I can’t provide for my family. We’re trying to be faithful and keep the commandments, but the miracles we need don’t seem to be coming anytime soon. Things just seem to be getting worse.

• I’m desperate. I’ve tried everything. I don’t want this weakness/sin/addiction to keep overpowering me, but in spite of countless prayers, fasting, hours in therapy, it won’t go away. Why won’t You help me?

I have my own list of miracles hoped for but not yet fulfilled. Some are recent hopes, and some stretch back more than three decades.

But when I think about the many I know and love who seem so deserving, so “miracle-worthy,” in some instances holding on by their spiritual fingertips, “not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off,” (Hebrews 11:13) my heart breaks for them. I want to pull them close and with all the love that might be given me, say to them, “Don’t give up. Don’t stop believing. Surely the One who made this and countless other worlds, who walks on water, raises the dead, turns water to wine, and so much, is capable of blessing you with the miracles you need, when you need them.”

So, for them, and for any reading this who might be wondering if they have missed out on the miracles God intends them to have, I share a few thoughts from what little I know about how to “help” a miracle. I write with a simple assumption which I deeply believe: No one is beyond the reach of the God of miracles. None have fallen so far that He cannot reach to and even below them in order to lift them up. I know that He can. I know that He does. I know that He will.

Here are three lessons I’m learning about miracles.

Lesson #1 - Learn about miracles and how they happen

In his remarkable message about spiritual momentum, President Russell M. Nelson encouraged us to “seek and expect miracles.”

Moroni assured us that “God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.” Every book of scripture demonstrates how willing the Lord is to intervene in the lives of those who believe in Him. He parted the Red Sea for Moses, helped Nephi retrieve the brass plates, and restored His Church through the Prophet Joseph Smith. Each of these miracles took time and may not have been exactly what those individuals originally requested from the Lord.

In the same way, the Lord will bless you with miracles if you believe in Him, “doubting nothing.” Do the spiritual work to seek miracles. Prayerfully ask God to help you exercise that kind of faith. I promise that you can experience for yourself that Jesus Christ “giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.” Few things will accelerate your spiritual momentum more than realizing the Lord is helping you to move a mountain in your life.

I love how he taught us that miracles take time (of course!) and may not be “exactly what…individuals requested from the Lord.” That seems important to remember.

Leola George, companion to my beloved mission president Lloyd P. George, would often remind missionaries that “the Lord rarely answers us when we ask Him, but He always comes on time.”

Lesson #2 - Believe that He wants to bless you with miracles.

Again from President Nelson, in his message about acquiring faith to move mountains, taught us that unbelief is often the only thing keeping the Lord from blessing us with the miracles we need and that He is willing to bless us with.

Moving your mountains may require a miracle. Learn about miracles. Miracles come according to your faith in the Lord. Central to that faith is trusting His will and timetable—how and when He will bless you with the miraculous help you desire. Only your unbelief will keep God from blessing you with miracles to move the mountains in your life.

I also love these seven stunning verses from Mormon 9:

15 And now, O all ye that have imagined up unto yourselves a god who can do no miracles, I would ask of you, have all these things passed, of which I have spoken? Has the end come yet? Behold I say unto you, Nay; and God has not ceased to be a God of miracles.

16 Behold, are not the things that God hath wrought marvelous in our eyes? Yea, and who can comprehend the marvelous works of God?

17 Who shall say that it was not a miracle that by his word the heaven and the earth should be; and by the power of his word man was created of the dust of the earth; and by the power of his word have miracles been wrought?

18 And who shall say that Jesus Christ did not do many mighty miracles? And there were many mighty miracles wrought by the hands of the apostles.

19 And if there were miracles wrought then, why has God ceased to be a God of miracles and yet be an unchangeable Being? And behold, I say unto you he changeth not; if so he would cease to be God; and he ceaseth not to be God, and is a God of miracles.

20 And the reason why he ceaseth to do miracles among the children of men is because that they dwindle in unbelief, and depart from the right way, and know not the God in whom they should trust.

21 Behold, I say unto you that whoso believeth in Christ, doubting nothing, whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all, even unto the ends of the earth.

Verses 20-21 alone are worthy of deep reflection. Consider: “Whatsoever he shall ask the Father in the name of Christ it shall be granted him; and this promise is unto all…”

Lesson #3 - Ask God for the miracles He wants to give to you instead of for the miracles you think you need

From a place of deep trust, knowing that God is our Father, that we are His children, and that He knows perfectly what is best for each of us, we can go to Him not with our lists of wants but instead with a quiet stillness, wanting only what He wants, asking not for the miracles that we want, but instead, for the miracles that He wants us to have and that He knows we truly need.

Perhaps this is what Nephi means when says that God will give liberally if we “ask not amiss.”

Yea, I know that God will give liberally to him that asketh. Yea, my God will give me, if I ask not amiss; therefore I will lift up my voice unto thee; yea, I will cry unto thee, my God, the rock of my righteousness. Behold, my voice shall forever ascend up unto thee, my rock and mine everlasting God. Amen.

2 Nephi 4:35

Or when the Lord tells a later Nephi that “all things shall be done unto thee according to thy word, for thou shalt not ask that which is contrary to my will.”

Helaman 10:5

Perhaps this tender little story from Sister Pat Holland will help you as it has helped me:

I’ve come to you today in kind of a motherly way to speak to those of you who feel a little bit disappointed at this point, and thus, a little bit discouraged. May I just share with you a personal disappointment we’ve had in our home recently. A few months ago our daughter, Mary, decided to run for president of her seventh-grade class. She was encouraged by a teacher who felt she could win, and so she began to campaign with lots of enthusiasm and a great deal of confidence. Both her parents and her brothers rallied behind and gave her all the support and help we could.

Well, she lost. Now I was told this earlier in the day before Mary got home from school, and you know mothers. I was totally devastated for her, and I just churned with emotions all day and most of the day hoped for something that I could say that might comfort her. When I heard her footsteps at the door, my heart and my feet leaped to the rescue, and all the words of comfort I could think of came tumbling out.

And you know, she just looked at me for a few minutes and then with sad little brown eyes she said, “Mother, will you just pray with me?”

As we knelt in prayer, she said, “Heavenly Father, I promised you I’d do anything if I could win, and now I know I must show how to be a good loser.” And then she said, “I don’t want you to be my servant anymore. I just want to be yours.”

You see, it was because of her pain and disappointment that she was given to say in a twelve-year-old way, “Maybe what I wanted would not be the best thing to serve you at all.”

Perhaps the “secret” to receiving miracles is contained in the profound words of twelve-year-old Mary Holland’s prayer:

“I don’t want you to be my servant anymore. I just want to be yours.”

Dear friend, if you have made it this far, thank you. I hope and pray for you to receive the miracles that you ache for. It can be hard when we hear about the miracles happening to people we know when our own miracles seem nowhere near. I’ve certainly felt that way at times. But I’m coming to learn that the miracles we need come when we need them, in the Lord’s time and in His way. I know that is true for me and for you.