Do you believe in miracles?

I’m not talking about ones you can brush off lightly, but real life-changing, stop- you-in-your-tracks type of miracles.  Not ones you’ve heard about happening in someone else’s life; someone’s mother who was miraculously found free of cancer. I’m asking you if you deeply believe that miracles can happen in your life?

Miracles require impossible prayers.  Do you have any of those?  I did and still do.  Mine were pie in the sky, through the roof kinds of prayers, but relied heavily on a God that regularly does the impossible in the world.

One of my impossible prayers was for Osama bin Laden.  The Bible says to pray for your enemies and I prayed that bin Laden would come to faith in Jesus Christ.  To my knowledge, that never happened.

Another of my life-changing, impossible prayers was to move to California.   God answered that prayer.  At times I thought it would never be answered, but in His timing, my expectations were surpassed beyond belief. Every day I get to drink in the sweetness of a seemingly impossible, but answered prayer.

There is a very real enemy to mind-blowing prayers – balancing the heartache and tension of not seeing any movement.  Powerful prayers take time and over time, we abandon the worthiness of our prayer.  Powerful prayers demand you never give up; that you become a warrior…in no way hardening your heart when a miracle doesn’t immediately follow the prayers.

Good thing, Jesus occupies my heart.  When I lift powerful prayers to Him, He gives hope when I would probably lose it and faith when I feel like abandoning them.  I prayed, for example, bin Laden would overcome his anger and come to truly know the One who gives life and love.  I prayed he’d move closer to the only Person who could rescue him from the depths.  It was tough to pray for Public Enemy #1, still I continued to plead bin Laden would finally know the One who could bind up his broken heart.  The only One who could give him an identity that said, “You are loved, my son.”

And even though that miracle didn’t happen, it hasn’t led me to abandon my belief that everyday, life-changing miracles are still ahead. This impossible prayer wasn’t answered, but it hasn’t soured me on all impossible prayers.  It’s easy to believe in miracles if every time you prayed, one happened.  While miracles are wonderful, it is the prayer and faith – the increased dependence on God while asking for an impossible dream – that’s where the true miracle takes place.

I believe in miracles – not just for the ones that have happened in my life, like getting to live in California, but I also believe because of the ones that didn’t happen.

Praying and having faith in impossible prayers declares to everyone that we have a God that is greater than “impossible.”

If you have an impossible prayer, don’t stop believing in miracles. Don’t stop praying. Have courage, put yourself out there and trust your God.  Believe in the impossible because we serve a God who can do all things.