I wonder how many of your prayers aren't answered because you aren't asking? Or how many aren't answered because you don't believe God can or will answer them? Ordinary prayers get ordinary results. God meets us where we are. If you ask small, you receive small. Once I asked BIG....really big. I look back now and with tears running down my face I am in AWE of the faith of an 11 year old girl. Let me tell you the story...
When I was 11 I fell out of a swing one sunday afternoon. I was standing up on the seat, tried to sit and lost my grip. I fell hard and broke both of my wrists. This was just the beginning of a faith journey God sent me on. I grew up in a church that believed in Faith Healing. So I didn't even think twice about whether God could heal me or not. I knew he could. I prayed he would. This happened in the spring and within a month or so, I was able to use my hands again. My left hand was normal, my right hand was a little wavy looking, but I still believed God had a plan.
Summer break had started and I lived near a lake in Northern Indiana. I remember my brother and I were down by the lake playing with the neighbor boys. My brother and his friend Jeff were "spying" on my friend Lee and I. I spotted them so I took off running towards them to "flush them out" of the bushes. As I stepped off a sidewalk that led down to the lake, my left foot didn't make full contact with the edge and then I heard a loud snap! I fell and screamed at the top of my lungs as the worst pain I have ever felt coursed through my body. I looked down at my foot and it was turned out, facing away from my body at a 90 degree angle. My ankle was completely destroyed. A few men from the neighborhood carried me home and gently placed me on our couch, elevating my leg with pillows. As I said above, we believed in faith healing. I look back now and realize what a chance I took on God that day!! My mom asked me if I wanted to go to the hospital or wait and on God and trust Him to heal me. I looked at her and said I'm going to trust God. So she called an elder from our church who came and anointed my head with oil and prayed over me. Lots of people were there, praying.
I don't remember if it was the next day or a few days later. It was a fog of pain. We had a big brown recliner and I remember my mom would sit and rock back and forth with her Bible, reading and praying. Our neighbor Carolyn was there, praying. I sat up and swung my legs off the couch and Carolyn knelt before me and said "God is telling me to place my hands around your ankle. I'm not going to touch you, but we are going to pray". As she and mom began to pray, I felt a tingling come over my whole body and Jesus entered that room. To tell the story today still brings tears to my eyes. To say that Jesus was there is overwhelming. I remember being 11 years old and seeing Jesus standing before me, in white robes with his arms outstretched to me. I started crying then because it was so amazing. As they prayed, we watched my foot turn before our eyes. My Lord and Savior heard my cries and saw my extreme faith in His ability to heal me and He showed up!!
I couldn't believe what I was seeing - my mangled ankle straightened before my eyes. Carolyn then said she felt God telling her to place her hands on my heel and move my foot gently forward (toward my body). She hesitated for fear of hurting me. Really? The foot just turned before my eyes with no pain! She didn't touch me and at that moment I felt Jesus leave the room. I will never forget that day for as long as I live. To be in the presence of Jesus - to see Him and feel His touch. Wow.
We wrapped my ankle in ace bandages - enough of them to support it and began praying for complete healing. A week later, while mom was at work, my brother and I were home alone when we heard a knock on the door. Outside were the County Sheriff and the County Nurse. They had gotten a call that I had been injured and had not received medical care. This was a common occurrence for people in our church congregation. So, that day they took Mike and I away from the home and to an Orthopedic surgeon in nearby Warsaw, Indiana. I insisted before we left that they let me call my mom and she met us there. The surgeon took x-rays and said the ankle was shattered and would need surgery and pins inserted. We went to surgery and when he came out he informed my mom that no surgery was needed. All he had to do was move my foot forward and it was set!!! Exactly what Carolyn was told to do when we prayed! Once again, God's sovereignty and omniscience was revealed to us. God is the great physician.
This is such a testimony to not only trusting God and praying big prayers, but believing that when he tells you to do something, we need to move! So many times in life we are told by God to move, and out of fear of pain, of the unknown, of being uncomfortable, we don't listen. Later we see why He told us to move and realize the experience we missed because we didn't have big enough faith. Isaiah 53:5 says "But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon him and by his wounds we are healed."
Mark 11:23 " Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them." That ankle was a mountain. I believed and trusted God could move it and He did. What mountain are you facing today? Do you believe God is who He says He is? Do you believe He can move it? Pray big prayers and watch God do BIG things!
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