...With Miracles

God is still a God of miracles. I've seen that this is especially true in the last week. I'd like to share with you some incredible miracles I've encountered recently.

Miracle #1

A young girl I know has nearly 5 acres of property that she owns, full of rubble and garbage. Knowing how much work lay ahead of her we offered to help. She was happy to take us up on that offer and away we went, piling stacks of wood, scrap metal, and old, rusty cans. After dumping a large load of plastic from the wheelbarrow I took a firm step back and felt a poke. Looking down I was surprized to see a three inch, rusty nail sticking out of my shoe. I pulled the nail out and then took my shoe off to examine my foot. Nothing. It didn't make sense. I stepped straight on the nail with all my weight and it didn't even puncture the skin. It was a miracle.



Miracle #2

For the last several weeks I've been at war with a cold. I've lost every battle. No matter what I do, I can't seem to get rid of it. However, I had been asked to sing in church on an upcoming Sunday. Thinking I'd of course be over my cold by then, I agreed. Time went by too quickly, as it tends to like doing, and the day of my solo came. Now to the coughing stage of war I could only take short breathes without having a coughing fit. I didn't know how I'd be able to sing, but I was committed. Praying I went up to the pulpit, and sang. No problems. After sitting back down my cough resumed. I'd been healed long enough to sing. Another miracle.

Miracle #3

A day of snow. Endless snow. In fact it snowed a foot within 24 hours. It didn't stop! As we were getting home we saw our neighbors out shoveling it while their kids played. We spent some time with them and their kids and about an hour later finally picked up our backpacks to go inside. Wanting to lock the truck, I reached in my pocket for the keys. Gone. We looked, retraced our steps. Searched the areas we'd been, but it had snowed so much if the keys had fallen out of my pocket they were gone for sure. We prayed and searched again. Nothing. Our only set of keys. I was sure I was a goner. The keys don't belong to us. We called another set of missionaries and asked for them to pray as well. Then again, we looked. Suddenly I saw what I thought was a leaf sitting on the snow where we'd been standing and searching. Walking over to it hopefully, I shouted in exitement as I found our heavy set of keys sitting gently on the freshly fallen snow. Another miracle.

Don't tell me that God doesn't perform miracles. These may seem simple to you, but it's incredible to me. Something I have learned is that the Lord does this everyday. If we would simply look around us we'd see miracles everywhere.

...With a Burden

I was recently reading through old things I've written and came across a small comment I made years ago: When you carry a load you need to keep your head bowed and your knees bent. What an interesting correlation between physical and spiritual burdens! Look at this man carrying a load of sticks on his back, you'll notice that indeed, the only way it is possible is because his head is bowed, and his knees are bent.




Now think of your own challenges in life. Sometimes the problems get heaped on your back one stick at a time. Sometimes they seem impossible to carry. But it IS possible! Just keep your head bowed and your knees bent. God is our relief. When you turn to him he will "ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs" (Mosiah 24:14) How incredible! All we need to do is turn to God in constant prayer. Keep our knees bent, our heads bowed.

...With Building Faith

As I was reading in the Book of Mormon I came across this verse:

"For the brother of Jared said unto the mountain Zerin, Remove—and it was removed. And if he had not had faith it would not have moved; wherefore thou workest after men have faith." (Ether 12:30)

I thought that was pretty cool: the brother of Jared moved a mountain! I'd aspire to move as much as an ant hill! Can you imagine how much faith it would take to create such a miracle? I doubt there are many people out there that have that much faith. So, how did the brother of Jared do it?

Earlier in the book we read about the family of the brother of Jared. As the Lord confounded the languages at the tower of Babel, the brother of Jared prayed that his family would be kept safe. God led them to a beautiful area, rich in the resources they needed. His family was there for four years when the Lord came again and "for the space of three hours did the Lord talk with the brother of Jared, and chastened him because he remembered not to call upon the name of the Lord." (Ether 2:14)

The brother of Jared, a prophet of God, had a time of weakness. For four years he didn't trust in God or turn to Him for direction. But, rather than fall back into making that same mistake, he corrected his wrong and worked hard to build his strength in God. Then, after what I'm sure took a lot of work and time, the brother of Jared eventually built enough faith that he saw Jesus Christ in the flesh and even had enough faith to move a mountain! What an incredible example of making "weak things become strong." (Ether 12:27)