Faith

I experienced a miracle Saturday. There have been 3 moments in my life other than today, 4/30/11 that have been this powerful and instrumental to my faith. The other three are: 7/26/04 (when I crossed over the line of faith); 7/23/06 (when I was baptized); 8/15/10 (when I reached a valley in my faith – only to have two close friends, through God, build me up).

I cannot run far due to leg injuries incurred years ago in high school that have haunted me since. Whenever I run pain flairs up, a reoccurring theme that seems to never go away. This day was no different. I started toward Lake Michigan to attempt to run 5 miles, the longest I’ve run since ’06. Sure enough about ¾ mile into the run I started developing the pain. I was so frustrated because this was the earliest this pain has ever developed; it usually manifests itself later in the run. That’s when the miracle happened. Out of nowhere I started to pray as I ran:

“Lord, I have faith that You can take this pain away this instant, but only if You are willing”.

I kept repeating it over and over until I started to feel myself purely believing it in my heart – no doubts – and God met me there. I don’t know how many times I repeated this, twenty at least, and when I stopped praying I realized the pain was completely gone! Praise God! This has never happened before. I usually have to stop during a run and walk home or jog slowly the rest of the way through the pain.

I was so elated about this I started to think during my run “why do I not pray like this more often”. Then I started to pray other things:

“Lord, I have faith that You are in control of my career, that you will guide me, and give me the faith to follow where You lead regardless of what that is.”
“Lord, I have faith that You are sovereign and in control of my finances, that what is mine, is not truly mine but Yours, given to steward.”
“Lord, I have faith that each breath, each moment that I have is a gift and blessing from You.”
“Lord, I have faith that You can remove, and lead me through, the areas of my life that keep me from You.”
“Lord, I have faith that You can give me the boldness yet humble confidence to speak about You to others, regardless of circumstance.”
“Lord, I have faith that You will provide what I need exactly when I need it.”

At one point in the run I noticed, then that my prayers changed focus, taking the center off of me and onto Him. But I kept repeating each phrase over and over until I felt it in my soul:

“Lord, I have faith that You will one day return, according to Your promise, and restore all of creation to how You intended.”
“Lord, I have faith that You are the triune God, Creator of heaven and earth.”
“Lord, I have faith that You desire to have a personal relationship with me.”
“Lord, I have faith that You have stepped into this world as man, born of a virgin, and lived among us, experiencing all that we experience, yet knowing no sin.”
“Lord, I have faith that You are omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent”.
“Lord, I have faith that I am justified by faith, apart from works of the law, and I receive grace through that faith.”
“Lord, I have faith that through Your divine providence I came to know You and the assurance of my salvation is not on me and what I can earn throughout the course of my life but that You came down as a man, and for our sake and your Glory, you climbed a tree of death (the cross) and turned it into a tree of life for me”.

When finished I realized I was back home, accomplished the run, and noticed the pain did not return! I was so overjoyed – and still am – to experience the Lord’s presence and work in such a powerful and personal way.

As everything in my life, I started analyzing this experience. I had two thoughts that came out of this: (1) It’s no surprise that we live in a fallen world, full of evil and temptations, that creep into and rob us of our belief of what is true of God and true of ourselves. We need to constantly remind and re-train ourselves of these biblical truths because we can become stale, stagnant in our walks and, if we are not joyfully reflecting on these Truths to constantly renew our souls, we will become hard, numb, callous to what God is doing in and around us, and miss out on the joy of recognizing and rejoicing in this work. (2) Some Christians, myself included, at times don’t believe enough in the mystery of God; the active, personal, power of the Holy Spirit, that He is currently and actively working right this very moment. We forget that He can and will come to our rescue, heal us, comfort us, strengthen us, give us exactly what we need, even when we may not know ourselves (Matt 6:8b). I also find it no coincidence that I have been reflecting a lot on the passage found in Matt 21:21-22: “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”

I believe this day was one where I experienced unbridled faith, faith without limits, an indescribable feeling. I pray this kind of faith would extend into all aspects of my life, always. I hope I pray like this more frequently, more boldly, fully, with confidence and overwhelming joy; because I now long to have more experiences like this. I thank God for this day, this experience, renewing these truths within, and leading me to a new depth of my faith. Because, as I kept praying, that’s what the common theme was… Faith. – DM