Without God, It’s Hopeless, but with God, Look at What Happened . . .
Have you ever wanted something really badly? Maybe you normally wouldn’t ask God for help, but you do, because without God, it’s hopeless, and with God, well, you just never know.
Remember my friend, Liz, who had her prayer answered for a miracle baby? (Click here to read her story.) The same thing happened to four other friends.
Without knowing the meaning of the name, Jan called her son Samuel.
After Liz got her baby, Jan told me she and her husband were having a hard time getting pregnant. Again, as I did with Liz, I prayed. And once more, my friend became a mom.
Instead of feeling shocked and elated, this might sound funny, but I felt protective of God as I would with a friend. I didn’t want people using Him, coming to Him for what He gave without caring for Him, you know, like Santa Claus.
So I said, “Jan, d
Look at him, isn’t he beautiful?
Janet’s baby almost showed up on my birthday.
On a snowy night the previous Christmas, I’d given her a journal because that’s the present God asked me to buy her. “That’s funny!” she said, “I keep feeling the urge to write about my process of getting pregnant.”
In July, after my birthday dinner, I walked her to the car. She told me of the pain of wanting a child so badly that she and her husband were in the process of in vitro, which came with its own set of challenges.
We prayed.
Just 364 days later, Janet gave birth to her son. And fourteen years after that, I visited his CCD class and shared this story.
Without God, it’s hopeless. With God, look what happened next . . .
Maureen had always known she wanted children. She finally met her husband in her late 30s. They married and a year later, she lost their first baby.
“Do you mind if I cancel our visit?” she said to me after that, “I don’t feel like getting together. We’re praying for a miracle.”
I didn’t know Maureen to be a woman of prayer, but as I listened to her story, God increased my faith. “I love praying for miracles,” I told her. “Three other friends were in a similar place until we prayed. Now they’re moms. Can I pray with you?”
Inside, I said to God, “You’re gonna do it again, aren’t You?”
Three months later, on my way to meet with Maureen, I called a mutual friend and said, “Cover me? I’m going in and I’m gonna be radical. God’s asking me to speak life to her womb.”
She laughed. And so did Maureen as I got down on my knees and laid hands on her stomach, but nine months later, she gave birth to twins!
In Jericho, where I worked as a missionary, we studied the things in the Bible that happened nearby. 1 Kings 2:19 says the people came to the prophet Elisha and asked him to do something because the water there was bad and the land unproductive.
Deuteronomy 28:18, said, “women miscarrying and fruit falling from the trees” was part of the curse of disobedience.
So in 2 Kings 2:20-21, Elisha put salt in that water to purify it and spoke: no more death and no more barrenness (International Standard Version).
We also noticed that the fruit and vegetables we bought in the market often resembled Siamese twins. Over and over, the theme of a double portion revealed itself in different ways, but never so sweetly as in Maureen’s little boy and girl.
The next baby, Tanja named after me.
Tanja and I met in Mozambique. She worked at the Red Cross. I was with Iris Ministries when she asked me to baptize her in the ocean.
A couple of years later, Tanja met me in Jerusalem for a blessing.
I wasn’t sure what she meant, but in a restaurant on top of the Old City, I told her about Liz, Jan, Janet, and Maureen.
She wept.
“That’s what we want,” she said, “a baby. And we believe God holds life in His hands. Before I knew my husband, God asked me to pray for him. This feels like that.”
I got excited and took her to the traditional site of Jesus’ burial, the Garden Tomb.
Taking her to a tomb sounds weird, right? But Jesus came back to life in His tomb and we were praying for life.
Tanja named her first child Isabel, the German version of my name. And then we asked God for Magdalena.
Aren’t they precious?
Have all my friends had the children they wanted?
No. I used to come up with excuses for God, reasons why He didn’t answer our prayers the way we asked until He asked me to stop doing that.
Why did these guys get pregnant and, well, not me? I don’t know.
But I know God loves me. He’s given me kids even though I didn’t give birth. Without God, it’s hopeless, but with God, life’s an adventure. And I wouldn’t trade mine for anything.
Do you need prayer . . . because I love praying for miracles!
Related Post: God Sure is Full of Surprises!
Related Post: Suddenly God Answers Prayer with a Miracle Baby
My husband and I need prayers. Please pray for us that we too can experience parenthood. There are many options to have children. My husband and I love each other so much that we hope for the blessing of our love to be manifested in children of our own. I keep saying nothing is impossible with God despite what the doctors say. God is the ultimate physician and healer. Thank you.
You’re right! NO-THING is impossible for God. You keep saying that and I’m going to keep saying that with You every time you cross my mind, Mom!
That’s funny. As I felt prompted to call you that, God prompted me with a memory I’d forgotten. I had a roommate who really wanted to adopt and God had me buy her book about motherhood. I struggled and said, “But Lord, what if it doesn’t happen?” 🙂 She is now the mother of three siblings.
He knows!!
Thank you, Elizabeth. God bless you and yours.
You just helped my faith soar as I am praying for miracles every day for friends and family. Beautiful, beautiful post. Thank you.
And, when we get to see each other, remind me to tell you my “Samuel” story.
Praying for miracles every day . . . oooh, what a great idea, I wanna do that.
Thank you, Carol, and I look forward to hearing your story soon. In fact, I’d love it if you’d share it here? If it’s appropriate.
I keep getting great private emails from people continuing the conversations we’re having here, but offline. And I understand as I do prefer to “fly under the radar.” One of the things I hope to do here is to share perspectives, not just mine. And in this crazier-by-the-day world, I get it. That is not always easy. 🙂
Briefly, I was working at a Pregnancy Resource Center in Portland. One day, a girl who had a positive pregnancy test walked out the door determined to have an abortion.
Within minutes, I received a phone call from another lady that I had met with a few times. She was excited about her pregnancy and growing in her love and knowledge of God. She called in despair because she had just had “another” miscarriage. I was filled with grief for her and anger at God. Why would He allow one person who didn’t want to have a baby get pregnant and choose to abort, while simultaneously taking the life through miscarriage of another desperately desired baby? I really wrestled with God. Graciously, the grieving mom did get pregnant again, and was given the gift of delivering her son – Samuel.
Please pray for my son Steven, who is 50. He is having knee surgery on Tuesday, July 30. He loves the Lord, but is discouraged because not only has he been in severe pain from Lyme’s Disease, their basement flooded when the power went out while they were camping, and then a swarm of bees attacked him and while running away he ran into a well pipe and shattered his knee.
This morning, I woke up with Lyme’s Disease on my mind! I’d forgotten to check my dog for ticks and he was sleeping next to me.
Anyway, let’s pray for Steven. 🙁 With all that, I think I’d be disCOURAGEd, too.
Father, all that seems overwhelming, but for You, it’s not. First, will You fill him with that peace that passes ALL understanding as he prepares for surgery tomorrow? Help him to lay all those concerns in Your giant and capable hands. I love the way problems look huge in our hands, but tiny in Yours. Father, we trust You with all of this and I can’t wait to hear the testimony. First the test and then the testimony. Thank You! It’s in Jesus’ name, we pray