Can you hear me?

Prayer has been a topic that has been on my mind for some time now. It was recently brought to the forefront again after listening to a message about praying big. For me, prayer is what helped start my faith journey. I was in sixth grade at the time. I had just learned that my uncle was dying from cancer and the prospects did not look good. At the time, I didn’t know much about God or prayer for that matter. But I had a bedtime prayer in a frame on my wall in my bedroom. I took it upon myself to memorize that prayer and I used it as my guide. I also prayed for my uncle. However, within a few days, unfortunately, my uncle passed away. He was already too sick to be saved. I was devastated. I remember questioning why I even prayed. I remember questioning if this God I had heard about was even real or even heard what I had to say. As I look back now in my life, I can honestly say that He was listening to me, even though it felt from that at the time. He heard my cries. What He did next is transformed my heart over the course of middle school and high school. He placed a yearning in my heart to know more about Him and to seek Him with a desire I cannot even describe. The transformation of my heart was not overnight and honestly, I struggled a lot to get to where I am today. It took years of Him showing me who He is to trust Him with it all.

The big question I had was is “Does God answer any of my prayers?” Now that I look back at certain events, I can say with confidence, yes, He does! I am rewinding my life to about five years ago now. There are three distinct events where I can say with confidence that God intervened. Please note that the names in the stories I disclose below are replaced by dummy names as to protect the identities of those involved.

Jessica was delighted to find out that she was pregnant, expecting a boy. The pregnancy was going good. Then her world was turned upside down at an ultrasound appointment. Her and her husband found out that their baby had a severe brain defect, one where he wasn’t expected to survive birth. This was mid-way through the pregnancy. Both have strong faith and made the difficult decision to continue on with the pregnancy knowing that they would likely lose the baby was he was born. She poured out her soul and somberness over social media. It just broke my heart that she was going to lose her baby so early after his arrival. Now, this is where God steps in. I prayed for her, her husband, and her baby. I asked God simply that she could have five minutes with the baby after he was born. Several others were praying as well. Later that year, her baby was born. Cautiously, she posted that he had made it, but prayers were still needed. The next day, he was still living. The two of them did not know what each day would bring, so they spent as much time with the baby as they could. Eventually, the doctors sent them home and sent the baby home with hospice care. Nobody had expected that. Then, he started getting a bit stronger and there was talk about removing him from hospice care. Then there were talks about if he could have a surgery to fix the brain defect he had. He had that surgery, and made it through. In fact, this boy is still here living on Earth today! He still has struggles. But he walks with a walker, he talks, and he is living! As I write this I realized that I asked that his mom just have five minutes with him. If everyone that prayed asked for that, she got so much more than the five minutes. Yes, I know it is a struggle with him because he still needs a lot of care. But this story is amazing to me and shows me that God can answer your crazy big prayers! And that He can do so much more than that too.

Around the same time a friend of mine posted that his nephew was in intensive care and the situation was not looking good. His nephew had gotten food poisoning and now was septic as a result of all the poison in his body. His little body was shutting down. I prayed for this little boy to get better and for a miracle to happen. Again, God was faithful and the boy lived. But not without complications. The event caused his kidneys to become inflamed and he continued to fight for his life. I continued to pray for this little boy and that he would be a miracle. He is a miracle! God helped him through the most trying time. He has a new kidney, but that is showing signs of rejection. God is still very much a part of his story today. Again, during this time God showed me that He can show up in amazing ways and provide miracles when they are least expected.

In addition, my uncle was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer that same year. His diagnosis was devastating to the family. I prayed for a miracle. I prayed that he would be cured. The outlook for him was grim. Six months to live. He made it to Christmas that year and was told that things were looking okay. He made it another year, but thing were a lot grimmer. He ended up passing away a year and a half after his diagnosis. While this story does not have as happy as an ending as the two above, I still see how God moved through this. He gave my uncle a year and a half with stage four lung cancer. That is pretty much unheard of, especially knowing that my uncle had the lung cancer not associated with smoking. He had been a smoker all his life and I had believed until recently that his smoking was the cause of his cancer, but I found out that he had the lung cancer not associated with smoking.

While God does not answer all our prayers, nor does he always give us the answer we want, I still believe that He is listening to us and what we ask for. Asking God for what I am calling “God sized prayers” and having some of those with amazing stories to tell behind the prayer, is pretty neat I think. It reminds me of who He is and how faithful He is. I do not have an answer as far as why some prayers get answered and others do not. Nor do I have an answer as to why sometimes you receive an immediate answer or others you have to wait years for. There have been times where I have questioned why my prayer was not answered and wanted God to tell me why. It is not about how strong your faith is or how great your prayer is. All I know is that I want to continue to ask Him my God sized prayers to see His work in my life and the lives of others around me. Just maybe that prayer I prayed for people in my family that do not know Him will one day get answered. Each prayer has a ripple effect and seeing those that get answered and the ripple effect is has on others to also see His greatness is more than I can ask for. I trust that He has my back and the back of those I love and care for no matter what. I dare you to ask Him your God sized prayer to see what happens. Step out in faith. Dare to dream big. What I do know is that if you do not ask, you will never know if He can help you through that situation, improving it for the better, using it for His glory and His name.