“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountain and go in search of the one that went astray?” Matthew 18:12

“In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears.” Psalm 18:6 

 Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Micha 6:8

Where Have God’s Miracles Gone?

Why has God stopped granting miracles?
Why doesn’t He heal and save and empower?
Where have all of His miracles gone
As we walk toward our final hours?

God’s miracles are on display every day,
As we breathe, and we walk, and we talk.
But we’re immune to everyday miracles,
So we rarely slow down to take stock.
We want our miracles big and brash.
We expect there to be drums and horns.
We don’t count the many times each day
God pulls us quietly out of the thorns.

So if you are blind to God’s miracles,
Let me point out only a few:
Watch as the sun rises each day
See each day His mercies are new.
See how He uses farmers to provide food
By sending just enough sunshine and rain.
That He uses the beautiful feet of His people
To comfort each other’s pain.
He heals thousands across the world
Just by guiding the doctors’ hands.
And He saves you and me regularly
By thwarting our ill-conceived plans.
But God doesn’t ask for attention
For each and every prayer that He grants.
Nor an audience as He reaches from heaven
Granting grace for a second chance.

Still, He hears our prayers for miracles.
And of course, He still intervenes to heal.
Know when you need God for a miracle 
The first step is always to kneel.
Then, simply Admit that you’re powerless,
Bankrupt in the Kingdom economy.
Finally, you need only Submit to His will
And Commit to His sovereignty. 
Praying for a miracle is not a mystery,
It’s inherent in the Christian creed.
Get on your knees, rein in your pride 
And humbly confess your need.
Linda Troxell, © 03/07/202

 Is There A Formula for Miracles?

At one time or another, each of us has been frustrated that we can’t find a shortcut to a miracle in our life. We long for a formula, ritual, or even a magic spell to facilitate what we believe we need, something quicker than praying and waiting. I’ve come to realize that there actually is something we can do. It isn’t a ritual like always praying before we eat. Neither is it a magic spell like Macbeth’s “Eye of newt, toe of frog, wool of bat, and tongue of dog.….” And it isn’t a formula like Einstein’s e=mc². But it is akin to a formula. Let me back up and tell you how I discovered God’s recipe for a miracle. 

I have been battling health issues for most of my life, beginning with anemia when I was just two years old. I’ve had Fibromyalgia since it was called Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, and very few doctors believed in its existence. I’ve battled obesity since childhood, and I’ve been hospitalized with pneumonia too many times because I was addicted to tobacco. Some of you reading this may believe obesity and addiction are character defects rather than health issues. If that’s you, I hope you will take an unbiased look at the facts of both conditions after you read this. Below are suggested websites for each issue. However, if you are more comfortable finding your own, there is no shortage of information on the internet.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1070736/

https://academic.oup.com/clinchem/article/64/1/7/5608934

As I got older and fatter, I developed arthritis in both knees and in one shoulder. As a nominal Christian, praying for healing never crossed my mind; I wasn’t that Christian. Eventually, my condition became severe enough I was forced to retire. After retirement, I went through a series of unfortunate events that left me broke and alone, looking for affordable housing. I have to admit, I was lamenting my bad luck and wallowing in self-pity as I wondered why me. Still, even when I settled for living alone in a tiny cabin in the mountains, I never thought of turning to God. What could He possibly have to do with my lousy luck? It wasn’t long before he isolated me in that tiny cabin and showed me He was my “bad luck.” And He left the ninety-nine to rescue me. “What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them has gone astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine on the mountain and go in search of the one that went astray?” Matthew 18:12

God isolated me while He led me to accept His Son as my Savior and Redeemer. If you’re interested in that story, I wrote about it in another post titled “The Christmas I Prayed for,” But it is only pertinent to this story for the way it ended. At the end of my confinement, I had a new relationship with God, Christianity, and Christ Himself. I’ve spent the years since reading and studying the Bible, praying, and developing my relationship with our triune God. But I’ve lived them as a virtual shut-in. I have difficulty walking even with a walker; I use supplemental oxygen and can no longer drive. I must depend on others for many of life’s essentials. Whenever I am forced to ask for help, I feel like a failure. It has been a lesson in humility that I now know was sorely needed.

With my newfound humility, I’ve prayed daily for God to tell me what I must do to facilitate the miracle of my healing. I knew I couldn’t expect God to heal me while I did nothing. An old aphorism played in my brain, “The Lord helps them who help themselves.” I knew He still did healing miracles, and I believed He found me worthy of healing. So I couldn’t understand why He wouldn’t reveal what I needed to do to facilitate my healing. I promised Him that when I could once more be part of the world, I would tell everyone I encountered about the miracle He had done for me, thus glorifying His name. But He didn’t tell me what to do, and I couldn’t understand why.

While I was waiting for instructions from the Lord, I gained more and more weight. Of course, I knew how to lose weight; who among us does not know the “simple formula” of eating less and moving more? I couldn’t move more, but I tried my best to eat less. And sometimes, I ate considerably less, but with no significant weight loss. While I never gave up, occasionally, I tried only half-heartedly. I couldn’t face the pain, isolation, and boredom while starving myself for no results. Still, I continued to pray to God, asking Him to tell me what I could do to begin the healing of my knees and my lungs.

Before God showed me who His Son is versus what the hole in my heart told me He is, nobody’s words could have convinced me that Christianity was anything but hypocritical, harsh, and punitive. But I have learned that while some Christians may be hypocritical and judgmental, that is not Christian behavior. Being a Christian is more than believing in Christ and attending church. There are sacrifices and complex changes that must be made. Those changes lead to love and growth that bring rewards not available to those claiming to be Christian while making no sacrifices or change. I don’t claim to be a perfect Christian, maybe not even a good Christian. But what I’ve learned through the practice of my faith has led me to make every effort to live as Jesus lived. Carrying out that commitment has increased my peace, happiness, and self-confidence beyond description. One of my many rewards is discovering the formula for receiving a miracle.

As I grew in Christ, I began to understand that it’s God’s will for us to be dependent on Him, not just rely on Him, but be entirely dependent. But two things kept me from that complete dependence. The baggage from my upbringing and the baggage of being raised in America. As a child, I learned I got more positive attention when being positive myself. This led me to believe that expressing negative feelings or thoughts is unacceptable. So, of course, I felt I couldn’t show God those unacceptable emotions either. As an American, I was raised in the era when the wild west and John Wayne movies depicted the ideal of independence and self-sufficiency that Americans strove for. Like any American of that era, that ideal was ingrained in me, including the mindset, “We work for what we have and take no handouts.” In that mindset, pride is admirable; it is to be achieved. And while I am proud and grateful to be an American, when I began to understand that pride interferes with our relationship with God and that He wants us to depend solely on Him, I couldn’t shake the whisper saying, “But you must do your part.”

As time passed, my health decreased as my understanding of the Lord’s overwhelming grace increased. By this time, my weight was dangerously high. I had chronic kidney disease and metabolic syndrome, a constellation of symptoms that increases one’s risk of diabetes, heart disease, and other health problems. I understood I was in danger of severe health issues but couldn’t lose the weight I so plainly needed to lose. I knew what I needed to do, yet, I couldn’t do it. Even as I believed unwaveringly in God’s promises and knew faith and fear were incompatible, I was often anxious, depressed, and fearful,

One day, in the middle of a few days of severe depression and anxiety, I cried out to God in frustration, anger, and confusion. Until then, my pride and “No negative emotions” upbringing allowed for only quiet, polite prayers. Within those constraints, my prayers had consisted of praising God, pouring out genuine gratitude for what He had done for me– for He had answered many prayers along the way– then, as if an afterthought, I would say, “By the way, if it isn’t too much trouble, I would really like …” whatever it was I might need, in this case, healing. “In my distress I called to the Lord; I cried to my God for help. From His temple He heard my voice; my cry came before Him, into His ears.” Psalm 18:6 

But this time, I gave God all my pain, frustration, and disappointment. I told Him how confused and angry I was that He hadn’t healed me or even told me what He wanted me to do to be healed. This was the first time I had been so vulnerable with God. After my prayer, I cried myself to sleep, and when I woke up, I felt different. As I scanned my mind and body, I realized that my fear, while still a low hum, was no longer my dominant feeling. And while I still felt confused about what God wanted, I no longer felt hopeless. Yet I assumed it was only the euphoria that sometimes comes from purged emotions and extended crying. I expected the old feelings to return the next day, if not in the next few hours. 

But I was wrong. The old feelings did not come back. Instead, my understanding of God’s desire for us to depend on Him became clearer. I began to understand that while He does want us to “do our part,” my understanding of our part was mistaken and misguided. What God wants as our part is that we live as He commands, pray humbly, honestly, and vulnerably, worship Him continuously, and live our lives in a way that honors Jesus, then step back and trust God to do His will. Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. Micha 6:8

This understanding freed me in a way that made my prior perception of freedom meaningless. The idea that God won’t bless me if I don’t do my part was dispelled. I was unburdened from the belief that I could only show God positive emotions or thoughts. I more fully understood that God wants us to talk to, yell at, or cry out to Him about everything. After all, God knows everything before we tell Him anything. With my new clarity, I felt free to pray honestly, and I fell to my knees and begged God to help me. I told Him I could not do what was needed. I confessed to Him that I had come to the end of myself, and He had to do this for me because I just couldn’t.  

After that prayer, I felt lighter than I have ever felt. I realized I had never prayed with this humility, openness, and vulnerability. —Put a pin in this–it will be important later.– I cried for a very long time after that. When I finally stopped crying, I expected to feel drained, but I was instead energized. The next day I felt much better. Both the depression and the fear were gone. I knew this big payoff came from handing my need to God and letting go entirely. I admit I had to fight myself not to take it back, as had been my pattern. 

I was confused and disappointed when nothing came from my humble, honest, and vulnerable prayer. In the next few months, I believed God had simply ignored my prayer. However, I can see now that He didn’t forget me; but that I ignored Him. He had spoken to me in the manner He most often does. A way I often miss. until He hits me over the head. This is how it goes: I pray for some answer. He puts information related to that prayer in front of me via TV, social media, etc., over and over again. Because I am slow to understand, He has to bombard me with whatever He is trying to say. So I read about it, I see it on TV and social media, and suddenly everyone is talking about it. And at some point, it dawns on me that all of this is more than a coincidence. In this case, it was low-carb eating and intermittent fasting. God was taking over as I had asked, but I was oblivious. However, I decided–thinking it was my idea–to try it. 

I stopped eating all sugar and cut my carbohydrates to about 30-50 a day. I love sugar, bread, sweet potatoes, and all carbohydrates, but they were all off-limits for this plan. Suddenly, everything I loved to eat was forbidden. It should have been difficult, as it had always been. But somehow, I easily adjusted to this way of eating. Next, I began fasting with a 16/8 plan, 16 hours of fasting, water or tea only, and an eight-hour window for eating. For some reason (God!), this was not difficult either. Half of the 16 hours were spent sleeping. It really only amounted to skipping breakfast. I was losing steadily; within 4 months, I had lost 40 lbs. I was thrilled, but still, I kicked the plan up a notch and began a program known as OMAD–one meal a day. I fasted for 20-22 hours and had a two to four hours window to eat. I even did a few 36 and 40-hour fasts in this process, unthinkable without God. Still, even after I had lost 50 lbs in just seven months with no difficulty or hunger, I was only nominally aware of how much God had responded to my humble and vulnerable crying out prayer.  

So, when did I finally understand that God had handed me a bonafide miracle? Let me backtrack just a bit to put it in context. In 2017, I learned I had kidney disease, not because my doctor told me but because I saw it on a lab report. When I asked my doctor about it, she said it was only a number, nothing to worry about. I learned that was patently untrue on the internet with just a few keystrokes. And I changed doctors. Unfortunately, it took almost three years to see a new doctor. While technically accepting new patients, every doctor at my clinic had no “new patient” appointments available for a year. One year turned into three as, one after another, two doctors I was booked with left the clinic shortly before I was scheduled to see them; thus, I started over both times. I was grateful just to have yearly wellness checks. 

My first wellness check was in 2022 with a Physician’s Assistant (PA). She explained that Chronic Kidney disease (CKD) is a progressive disease that requires careful attention to keep its progression slow and avoid kidney failure and dialysis–not just a number. She advised me to stop taking Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs) such as Ibuprofen and Advil because they damage the kidneys, especially those already damaged. This frightened me because unaware of this danger, I had been taking 600 mg of Ibuprofen three times daily for years to help with arthritis pain. The PA told me that keeping my blood glucose stable with no spiking and normal blood pressure was also very important. I immediately stopped taking Ibuprofen. But even so, the kidney disease had begun five years prior, I had not been told about the NSAIDs, and I had not yet started a healthy eating plan. My glucose level at that time was 122, very close to a diagnosis of type two diabetes, and my blood pressure was barely passable even while taking blood pressure medicine. I was terrified.  

Fortunately, the next doctor didn’t quit. In February of 2023, my appointment with my new doctor was only 10 days out when I thought about all the changes in my body and lifestyle since my last blood work. Having some recent blood work before my appointment would be beneficial and allow us to discuss the current facts of my health. The doctor agreed. I received the results a few days before our appointment, and to say I couldn’t believe my eyes understates my surprise! My blood glucose was 96! Well within normal limits. My blood pressure had normalized and stayed stable since I lost the first 40 pounds, so my most significant anxiety was centered on my kidney function numbers. 

An EFGR, the measure of kidney function, is considered normal, without disease, if it is equal to or greater than 60. Over the past five years, my EFGR had fallen from a high of 57 in 2017 to a low of 43 in 2022. Until I was informed of the danger in 2022, just a year ago, I had taken a lot of Ibuprofen. And my blood pressure and glucose had only stabilized a few months before; I only hoped the numbers had remained stable. When I looked at those numbers, I had to stare for a long moment to grasp what I saw. 

That was the moment I realized God had granted me a bonafide miracle! My current EFGR was 60; I no longer had kidney disease! Everything I have read about kidney disease says it cannot be reversed, only managed. I can’t be sure that spontaneous remission of chronic kidney disease has never happened, but I’ve never heard of it happening. This was the healing I had been asking the Lord for. Of course, It was not done according to my will–healing of my arthritis and COPD–it was done as it always will be, according to His will. But what about the formula that I promised at the beginning of this long story?

Remember I asked you to put a pin where I said, “I realized this was the first time that I had prayed with complete humility, openness, and vulnerability?” Well, that is the linchpin of the miracle formula. I cannot say that this formula will produce a miracle every time. Still, I am convinced a miracle cannot happen without it. This is the simple formula:

Admit– Humbly cry out to God, sincerely, telling Him you need Him to take over because you are at the end of yourself and you know that only He can help you. Don’t worry about the elegance of your words; God doesn’t.

Submit– Wholly and sincerely give your concern and will to God. And leave it with Him. So often, we give our will to God, only to take it back when we feel fearful, doubtful, or anxious. This formula depends on complete submission and total dependence. If you become anxious, Pray.

Commit– Once you have given your concern to God, believe He will deal with it. Don’t wonder if there is something you need to do; you’ve already admitted you could do nothing. Commit to allowing God to take it from here and to do whatever He tells you to do. Put it out of your mind, stand by, and listen for God’s voice however it comes to you. 

And when you “hear” His voice, hopefully, sooner than I did, follow His directions, no matter how absurd they seem. If you have already tried what He tells you to do, do it again. Remember, He is God, and you are not. This is no longer about you; it is about Him and His miracle that He is preparing for you according to His plan and His will. That’s it, folks; Admit, Submit, and Commit. It may seem too easy, but I can testify that while it is elegantly simple, it ain’t easy!

Let’s pray:

Gracious Father in heaven, we are thankful you still perform miracles today. And we are grateful that we can come directly to you with our prayers, and you welcome them all. Lord, help us to make you the center of every part of our lives, allowing you to lead us in your will. Please help us to remember that your blessings and miracles come in your time and according to your will. Lead us to be honest, humble, and vulnerable in our prayers, whether for praise, comfort, or favor. Then, when we have made our needs and desires known to you, Lord, lead us to step back and trust you to do your will. Help us, Lord, to remember to turn to you in prayers of adoration and gratitude more often than in prayers of supplication. And Let us never forget that you love us so much that you bled and died for our salvation so that we could be with you in eternity. Thank you, our God, our Savior, and our Redeemer. We pray this in the holy name of Jesus,  Amen.