While helping her son clean up construction debris at his home, Karen started experiencing symptoms of an allergic reaction. Her skin began itching off and on. Around the same time, she had her hair done by a new hair stylist and felt that maybe she was allergic to the hair chemicals. Shortly after, she began to lose a lot of hair to the point where she feared she would have to use a wig. She visited the dermatologist and he prescribed medication. However, she was reluctant to use it.
    She turned instead to intense prayer. She told God that she didn’t understand what was happening but she was going to wait on Him. For six months she prayed for healing but experienced no sign of improvement. However, one day she picked up her phone to watch the 700 Club. The prayer segment was on. She hoped that one of the announcers would mention her problem … and they did. She knew that that word of knowledge and prayer were for her. She began to cry, stopped what she doing, lifted her hands and thanked God for hearing her. Shortly after, she noticed that she was no longer suffering from heavy hair loss. She simply has the regular hair loss she is accustomed to from washing or brushing her hair. She acknowledges that hair loss is not a big sickness but what she was going through mattered to her so it mattered to God. He has our best interests at heart.
    The word “miracle” may conjure up in our mind something big and impossible like maybe the parting of a Red Sea, or someone being delivered from a near death experience or an impossible healing where doctors say there is no hope. I was moved by the above testimony because it is a miracle. It may seem insignificant, but it’s a miracle nonetheless. I love the fact that God is concerned about everything about us. He is not only interested in performing big, impossible feats that everyone would be sure to notice. But He also does those little, seemingly insignificant things that He knows we care about.
    The Bible also contains such stories of small miracles. Jesus’ first miracle at a wedding feast falls into this category (John 2:1-11). Jesus did not come onto the scene in a blaze of glory. They had run out of wine and Jesus simply did something about it. In fact, few people at that wedding knew that Jesus had turned the water into wine. With this simple miraculous feat, He saved the bridegroom from embarrassment and exalted him in the eyes of his guests.
    In Matthew 17:24-27, Jesus and Peter are faced with having to pay the temple tax. Jesus tells Peter to go fishing and in the mouth of the first fish he catches, he would find a coin. This he would use to pay both his and Jesus’ temple tax. This was not a miracle for the public to see. They needed the money for the tax and the Lord chose to provide it in this supernatural way. 
    There are many other stories in the Bible about tiny, personal miracles that met the needs of one person or another. It was not always about calming a storm or parting a large body of water. God is concerned about those areas of our life that matter to us. I like to think about God as a personal God, because He is. Sometimes we may be afraid to pray for something because it seems too unimportant to pray about but guess what? God is concerned about that unimportant issue simply because it is important to us. His love for us is greater than we can ever think or imagine. 
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. God is a personal God. He cares about the big as well as the little things that we face. He loves us and has our best interests at heart. Nothing is too big or too small for Him to accomplish for us. Be encouraged!

    I felt led to write about the God of miracles this second month of the year. The thing is, there are so many miracles in the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments, not to mention those we experience today, that it has been difficult to choose out one or the other. Yet, this week, the miracle of the great catch of fish which Simon Peter and a few other disciples caught seemed to get my attention.
    In Luke 5:1-11, we meet Simon Peter, James and John. They are in the water washing their fishing nets with their boats nearby. Jesus is addressing the crowd and chooses Simon Peter’s boat to sit in while doing so. When He is finished speaking, He instructs Simon Peter to sail out into deep waters and to let down his net. Simon Peter reveals that they had tried all night to catch fish but were unsuccessful. However, he agreed to do it because Jesus had asked him to. They were astonished at the results. The catch of fish was so big that their nets began to break. When they asked their friends in another boat for help and the fish loaded into both boats, the two boats began to sink under the weight of the number of fish.
    A few things come to mind with this story. One, when Simon Peter and his companions first tried, they failed. They were out all night but could catch not even one fish. The effort is admirable, after all this is the way they made their living and clearly they worked hard. But once Jesus came into the picture, things changed. Their first effort was on their own strength, based on what they knew to do as experienced fishermen. However, when God came into the picture, He was able to do what they could not. Sometimes, we just have to let go of our ability, of our effort - admirable as it may be - and let God take the reins. I think sometimes God just allows us to try and fail so that we can clearly see that He is able to do what we can’t.
    Second, Simon Peter made an interesting statement before letting down the nets again. He said: “…but because You say so, I will let down the nets” (v.5). He first acknowledged their inability to get the job done then he agreed to obey simply because Jesus asked him to do it. I think sometimes, it’s about being willing to obey the simple instruction God gives us. Maybe sometimes we miss our blessing because we don’t want to trust God enough to obey what He asks us to do. His instruction doesn’t make sense, we may have even tried already and failed multiple times so we are not motivated to try one more time. But sometimes all it probably takes is a simple act of obedience whether or not it makes sense to us. And sometimes it may mean trying one more time when we are exhausted from trying and failing. But remember, we may have tried and failed in our strength and ability, now it may be time to try again but in God’s strength and ability. 
    This brings me to my third point: when we are all out of options, God always has one more option to try. In our eyes, giving up may seem to be the last and only option we have, but with God in it, there is always one more option, one more solution. I don’t believe God is ever out of options. He is able to see way beyond our scope of vision and is actually quite able to create solutions as needed. Yes, God still has the final say, not the problem, but God. 
    So be encouraged. God still has the final say. Simon Peter was faced with the reality of their failure to catch fish the night before, but Jesus had another outcome planned. Once Simon Peter chose to obey Jesus’ simple instruction, he was not disappointed and neither will you be. We can’t always dictate how things will turn out and we certainly can’t always trust our failed experiences. But, when God steps into the picture, anything is possible, even the outcome that we least expected. After all, God is still the God of miracles!
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. You can never go wrong serving a God who is able to reverse any negative situation. God just wants the best for us but He also wants us to trust Him and when we do, we will not be disappointed.
    

    One of the great characteristics of God is that He is the God of the impossible. It is no wonder then that numerous stories of miracles can be found throughout the pages of the Bible. There are miracles of healing and deliverance, miracles in nature, miracles of restoration and the list goes on. God is able to supernaturally affect every sphere of life and with each miracle God seems to be reminding us that He is capable of showing up and showing out no matter how impossible the situation might be.
    This gives us confidence in Jehovah God as we are reminded that He is not only capable of performing events that cannot be explained but that there is nothing that we will face or go through that He cannot handle on our behalf. It does not matter how dire the doctor’s report, how bleak the financial outlook or how irreparable a relationship, God is able to resolve and turn any situation around.
    Of the many stories of miracles in the Bible, two stand out - Jesus calming the storm (Mark 4:35-41) and Jesus walking on water (Matthew 14:22-33). Both stories remind us that at times, there will be forces coming against us that we cannot control. Yet, what is bigger and more powerful than us, is not bigger or more powerful than our God. 
    But in both stories, something interesting takes place. In the first story, Jesus and His disciples are in a boat. By the time the storm arises, Jesus is asleep on a pillow. Jesus is not disturbed by what is happening around them and does not awake until the disciples wake Him up. Imagine, the waves are crashing into the boat and filling it yet, Jesus is not awakened by all this disturbing activity around Him. 
    In the next story, Jesus is on land praying while His disciples are in the boat. He is able to see them struggling against the contrary winds and proceeds to walk on water towards them. Just like the first story, the winds are strong and the waters are rough, yet Jesus is calmly walking towards them as if nothing is happening. I believe that Jesus’ attitude in both situations simply meant that He knew exactly who was in charge … and it was not nature. It was Him. He was not about to be moved or concerned by contrary situations that He was quite capable of controlling. 
    In both stories, once the disciples turned to the One who was in control, they did not need to be afraid because their God was the answer to what was coming against them. I believe we too, need to be reminded that our God is the answer to whatever is coming against us. Whatever we face usually looks and feels bigger and more powerful than us, yet, the God we serve, the God living inside of us, is greater than what is coming against us. 
    It is also good to be reminded that our God has the final say … not whatever is coming against us. It may feel intimidating and look intimidating but it can never prevail against our God. When we choose to turn to and fix our eyes on the God of miracles, He is able to fix things in a way that just sometimes doesn’t make sense. 
    So be encouraged. As a child of God, you are not serving a dead God, you are not serving a weak God. You are serving a God who is able to do impossible things. He is Jehovah Nissi - the Lord My Banner / the Lord My Miracle (Exodus 17:15). He can turn any situation around, He can make any wrong right, He can reverse any negative situation and work things out in your favour. 
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. In this life, there is nothing that we face that God cannot handle. He is and will always be the God of miracles, able to do the impossible, able to take us successfully through any challenge that may come our way.
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    One night in December 2023, Lauren, a high school senior, and her boyfriend were hit by a drunk driver. They were both pinned in their seats. While Lauren’s boyfriend was able to free himself, it took firefighters more than 20 minutes to free Lauren from the wreckage. She was barely responsive and unable to follow commands, showing signs of a massive head injury. When her mother arrived, she asked if she could lay hands on her and pray for her.
    Lauren survived the flight to the hospital. There it was discovered that she had an open scull fracture with brain matter coming out of her skull, the pressure inside her head was too high, she had several fractures and was bleeding internally. Her father sent out prayer requests for her on social media. Her mother, a former trauma nurse, continued to trust Jesus for her daughter’s healing. After some days, the pressure in her brain started to decrease and stabilise and she was gradually weaned off medication. After two weeks she began to regain consciousness and started being able to follow commands. After thirty-nine days in the hospital, Lauren was transferred to rehab. She regained her ability to walk and talk and was able to walk across the stage at her school graduation.
    Over a period of time, Lauren also had to deal with her feelings for the drunk driver who hit her. She has chosen to forgive him knowing that that is what Jesus would have done.
    I found myself getting emotional at times while listening to this testimony. It seemed like one of those impossible situations that had you wondering how it would end. When I looked at Lauren’s car in the video, even I wondered how could she have possibly survived and hearing that she had brain matter coming out of her skull did not help to improve my opinion of the outcome. Truly, this was a case for God, the God of the impossible. 
    I was encouraged by her mother’s faith in her God. She was a former trauma nurse and would have witnessed her share of accidents. She rightly admitted that her faith brain was battling with her medical brain. She knew what could happen and even should happen from a medical standpoint but she chose to believe that her God would pull her daughter through. And He did. He did not disappoint them. 
    Have you ever been in an impossible situation where you knew what the outcome should be yet, you chose to believe God anyway for a miracle? I have personally discovered that it is easy to trust God when things look favourable but when they don’t and your eyes don’t see what you want to see, faith in God can be downright difficult. But according to Hebrews 11:1 that’s what faith in the God of miracles is all about: "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen." You don’t have to see it to believe it. Rather, you have to trust God to make a reality what your eyes can’t see. That’s why the Bible also says that we need to walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7)  ). If we relied on our senses we would always be discouraged. Trusting God means believing that He is able to and will do what is impossible for us to accomplish. 
    I have had enough opportunities to trust God in spite of what I was seeing and experiencing. I have honestly told God that it is so easy to trust Him when things are going the way I would like but when they are not, trust is difficult. Yet, it is those difficult situations that God uses to increase and strengthen my faith in Him. Sometimes it’s not even about if He can but if He will. How many of you can relate? We know God can but will He do it?
    I can say that trusting God has never been a waste of time for me. God continues to take me successfully through every situation I face. And that’s just who God is. He loves us and genuinely wants the best for us. He is still the God of miracles, the God who can and will do the impossible for you, just because He loves you.
    If you have not accepted Jesus Christ into your life as your personal Lord and Saviour, I encourage you to do so today. There will be times in life when we will have to face insurmountable challenges. Yet, with God on our side we can have the confidence that He is there and He is able to do what we can’t … the impossible!