Episode 32: Praying for Miracles -- What if They Work? What if They Don't?

Let's face it -- even though Jesus says, “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.” ... I've never once seen a mountain throw itself in the sea.  How about you?

What does that mean?  That praying for miracles doesn't work?  No ... because we've either witnessed or heard of many miracles that did work.  

Laurie and her guest Jennifer Tirrell dig into this topic today, covering such questions as: 

• if I pray for a miracle and don't receive one, does it mean I did something wrong?  
• Does God get upset when we ask for things that are not part of his will?  
• And how can we up our chances that our prayers will be heard and fulfilled by our Almighty Father?

Jennifer describes her Generational Legacy project.  Click the link if you'd like more information.

Transcript

0:01

Hi, I'm your host Lori Larson, and this is the year I read the Bible. Welcome a Lifelong Christian. I thought I was familiar with the Bible, but in 2023 I accepted the challenge of reading the whole thing, cover to cover. Whenever I encountered something I didn't understand or wanted to learn more. I jotted it down, but I kept reading to stay on schedule. Then I reached the end Imagine Confetti rating down on me, and a huge sigh of relief. I had 40 topics to research in 2024. I started diving into all those topics. I did research, I wrote blogs and I shared them with whoever might wanna learn too. And in 2025, the project continues. I published a book containing all my essays, and now a podcast. Is there something you can learn from that dusty book that sits on all of our shelves? Yes. Yes, there is. Let's dive into The year I read the Bible. Hello friends, this is Lori and I am here with you today with another essay in my project the year I read the Bible. This is essay 32 out of 40. I'm looking ahead at the calendar and I believe the project will end around Easter time, which is exciting'cause of course the end of my essays take place at Easter. The crucifixion and the resurrection and the post-resurrection. So without really planning it out, it seems like God had the timeline in mind all along. I'm looking forward to bringing you this essay called Praying for Miracles. What if they work? What if they don't? Here we go. The Bible is filled in both the old and New Testaments with stories of miracles performed by God, Jesus, the disciples and prophets. Powerful stories that result in unlikely battles won, escapes, accomplished impossible pregnancies, and the multiplication of food and drink. These documented biblical miracles bring up the hope that they could still occur under the right set of circumstances in the world today. Have you ever experienced a miracle yourself? You quite possibly have and either know it or maybe you weren't aware that it was indeed a miracle from God. I recently listened to an audiobook filled with stories of real life miracles. It was a very uplifting and heartwarming read, and most of the miracles involved God helping someone out of a life-threatening situation, healing a deadly medical condition, or helping a woman conceive a baby when doctors felt it was impossible. Mark 1123 shows us Jesus saying 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. Hmm. Think about that. In all my days, I have never heard of a mountain actually throwing itself into the sea, and especially not at the order of a human. So was Jesus using an analogy? Was he exaggerating to make his point about the powerful outcome of prayer? He goes on to say in verse 24, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. Okay, that seems pretty straightforward. All you have to do is ask for it and believe it and it will happen. Been but. What if it doesn't happen? You probably agree with me that we've all prayed for things that simply haven't happened. Does that mean we didn't believe hard enough that we weren't worthy to ask for something and have the Lord Almighty granted that our faith simply wasn't strong enough? I've heard people say. Prayer is not like having a genie in a bottle, and all you have to do is rub the side and it happens. And I agree with that thought. Is there a clue in the rest of the conversation Jesus was having with his disciples In this section, verse 25 says, and when you are praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them so that your father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Hmm. So does that mean in order for your prayers to be fulfilled, you have to forgive anyone you have a grudge against First. That could take some doing. Sometimes I feel like I'm giving a list of tasks to God to accomplish, to fulfill my will. Maybe it's the healing of someone who's sick or securing a job that I really want that would make a big difference in the life of my family or any number of requests of God to achieve my heart's desires after all. Isn't that what verse 24 tells us? Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. But what about God's will? I believe God has a plan for every situation, and it would not be difficult to believe that his will is different than mine. He sees the whole picture while I only see what's right in front of me. He may plan to fulfill a prayer request, but not right now. Maybe not until another sequence of events happens first. It could be years from now. And undoubtedly his timing would be better than mine anyway. In her article. What happens when you're praying for a miracle and you don't get it? Author Sherry Yates shares these strategies for things to do when you're waiting for a miracle you prayed for and it doesn't seem to be happening. One, do not exhaust yourself trying to make sense of it. We are not supposed to understand everything because we simply can't understand everything, but we are supposed to pray about everything so we can have the peace that is better than understanding. We get a chance to believe even when we don't get our way. Faith isn't seen. It's continuing to believe even when we do not see. And two, do not stop asking God for his help. After we don't see the miracle. We ask for many of us back off from praying because we feel inept or maybe wonder if God even cares. The Bible does tell us to place our hands on sick people and pray for them. Mark 1615 through 18. It doesn't say you make them well if your faith is strong enough. It teaches us to reach out in faith, but only God's power works. The miracles our responsibility is to pray, but the weight of the outcome was never meant to be on our shoulders. I saw this comment in my research that I liked. Prayer is not like instant coco. Just add water and there you go. Sometimes, yes, prayer can see a result instantly, but usually that is not the case. Prayer is often answered in ways we don't expect. At times we don't expect, and it's most important not to get discouraged or lose faith when you don't see the result you're praying for the very act of prayer. Is an important one. We get the chance to put ourselves in a posture of prayer to push away all the competing distractions of our life, to focus on Almighty God and speak openly about what's on our mind. In addition to speaking, we can also listen to see if a message is delivered to our heart and mind. Time spent in prayer is time building. And enhancing our personal relationship with God. And I can't really think of any other activity on my calendar today that is nearly as important as that. Let's pray a dear God, help us to remember to come to you with all our requests and thanks and praise. We know you want to hear from us. And we know that prayer builds and strengthens our relationship with you when we ask for those things that don't see an immediate response. Please help us stay patient and strong and wait for your divine timing to do your work. Amen. And now stay tuned. I have a chat with my friend Jennifer Tyrell, who you met several weeks ago on another episode. She is back to give us her thoughts on this topic. Okay.

Laurie 10:10

we are so excited to be back today with jennifer Terell. We were excited to meet Jennifer on episode 29, which was three weeks ago, and she told us a little bit about her children's book that she has out and her novel, her, dual timeline, Christian fiction novel that is coming out in June Welcome back, Jennifer.

Jennifer 10:36

Thank you so much, Laurie. It's great. To be here.

Laurie 10:41

Okay, so this essay Praying for Miracles, what if they work and what if they don't? I think in this essay I shared a lot of my own questions and, insecurities maybe about what does it say about us as Christians if we're not witnessing miracles from God every single day? Am I doing something wrong? As I ask my listeners in the essay, I'll direct the same question to you. Have you ever experienced a miracle? Or if not, have you been close to someone who has

Jennifer 11:17

I think so. Yes. Friend Cheryl comes to mind. She, at 58 years old was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease. I don't know if you know that of, of

Laurie 11:27

I.

Jennifer 11:27

but it's horrible. A LS it's just a, a very, very

Laurie 11:32

Yep.

Jennifer 11:33

diagnosis. But I was privileged to be able to walk through those seven months, of the end of her life. And one of the things that God did. For her that time. More than one. But one thing, we were down at the beach in Florida and she loved the beach. She wanted to, have a sunny day at the beach in the very worst way. When we were driving over to the coast, it was a cloudy day and we prayed and I was just praying. I said, Lord, please give Cheryl a sunny day. I know it's. impossible because everywhere we looked it was just rain and clouds. went to the beach anyway, and I'm telling you, God opened the sky, the heavens, and it was like a beam of sun. Just on us, just on

Laurie 12:27

Oh my gosh.

Jennifer 12:29

look around and it was still cloudy, but that was. gave, he answered our prayers and I consider that a beautiful miracle and a testament.

Laurie 12:42

Absolutely. That's a beautiful story. And did Cheryl notice and, and recognize it for what it was?

Jennifer 12:48

She did. Yes. We just sat there and held hands and just said, thank you, God. It really was unbelievable. But he's just so good to us and he is in all the details. He hears us.

Laurie 12:59

Yes, you're right. He is definitely in all the details. So in the essay, I mentioned the Mark 1123 passage, which is truly, I tell you, this is Jesus talking to his disciples. If anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea. Does not doubt in their heart, but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. What are your thoughts about that? Is it really that easy?

Jennifer 13:32

Well, God is showing us the difference between the holy and the human. You know, we do doubt, we do doubt, and that's okay. It's human. Cleansed from sin the moment when we repent, but we're never made totally complete until he takes us home. So when I was praying about this, I thought, you know, perhaps the father is looking for our obedient hearts here. The act of stepping out in repentance and asking for the mountain to move. And it came to me maybe the sea is trust and maybe we are the mountain. What do you think about that?

Laurie 14:22

Oh my gosh. Okay. This is a new concept. Say that again so I can absorb it.

Jennifer 14:28

Maybe the sea is our trust, the stepping out, the repenting, and we are the mountain. So when we take that step, he changes us. He moves us,

Laurie 14:41

beautiful.

Jennifer 14:41

in our heart.

Laurie 14:43

Said in the essay. I haven't seen a mountain moving in. So it must be a lyrical parable like concept. And that's what you've brought up. It may or may not be literal, but I think God just wants us to be keeping our heart and our mind on him,

Jennifer 15:07

Yeah.

Laurie 15:08

He wants us to ask. For miracles. But I think it's also, we shouldn't lose faith or lose hope if we don't see them. If we don't see them immediately or even at all. Because he may have a different plan.

Jennifer 15:27

I agree. Yeah, we have to keep, I think we have to continue on with prayer, knowing that he is working it out for the good of those who love him. Just like his word says his promises are true. Our job is to keep stepping in faith and keep believing, and keep praying and know that he is working it out, and also

Laurie 15:55

Yeah.

Jennifer 15:55

person has to do their part. They have to do the choosing

Laurie 16:00

That.

Jennifer 16:00

the prayer that we're asking.

Laurie 16:02

You're right. You're saying if we're praying for another person, we're praying for some miracle or some, resolution for another person.

Jennifer 16:11

Mm-hmm.

Laurie 16:11

That person has to also be faithful to God and, believe.

Jennifer 16:17

Yes, I

Laurie 16:18

have that faith.

Jennifer 16:19

One thing I just think of happened recently, a friend of mine, her first daughter got married but she was separated from my friend for many years. She had nine. Children and my friend never got to spend time, if any, with these nine grandchildren. And she prayed and

Laurie 16:40

No.

Jennifer 16:41

could not understand, Lord, what happened. You know, why, why is this happening? But she kept on praying and, been over 20 years. And do you know now? Something changed in her daughter, in their, family. And the daughter has come back. And when I saw a picture on Facebook with my friend with these grandchildren, some of them are married now with their own, she's got two great-grandchildren and she and her daughter were holding hands I

Laurie 17:12

Oh my,

Jennifer 17:13

I said, thank you,

Laurie 17:14

oh.

Jennifer 17:15

20 some years. Don't stop praying. He knows your heart. He's working it out. We have to just keep trusting.

Laurie 17:23

What a tragedy that they lost out on so many years together, but what a beautiful resolution

Jennifer 17:30

yeah,

Laurie 17:31

they finally found their way back to each other.

Jennifer 17:33

yeah, yeah. I just, I wonder what all had to shift, in order to make that happen. But God sees it

Laurie 17:41

Yes, you are right. As we pray, and I am involved in several groups where we go around the room and, we mark down prayer requests, and then we keep track and we pray for others. How do we know if what we're asking is not God's will in our lives? Does that mean that we shouldn't ask him for it? And do you think we upset him at all by asking for things that are not his will?

Jennifer 18:11

I don't know. I don't think we upset him. think it's like a little child who asks for things that they shouldn't have that aren't good for them. We don't, we're not upset with them.

Laurie 18:24

Yes. Right.

Jennifer 18:26

But, I guess Jesus, taught us to say thy will be done. So in a sense, if we're asking for things that aren't, according to his will, you know, he didn't ask for more than, our daily bread in, in the Lord's prayer, forgiveness of sins.

Laurie 18:49

Mm-hmm.

Jennifer 18:50

An offering that that forgiveness to others. You know, protection from temptation, protection from evil. Jesus taught us. These are the things that we are to pray for and to ask for. I don't know if he

Laurie 19:04

Yes.

Jennifer 19:04

his eyes when we ask for things that are clearly, not of him, or if he wonders why we're clinging to our earthly, bodies when we have so much to look forward to in heaven. Or ultimately, I think he made us. He understands us. See our motives. He loves

Laurie 19:21

Yeah. He looks at our heart

Jennifer 19:23

Yes.

Laurie 19:24

I liked, what you said about, following the Lord's Prayer as kind of a guide, asking for those things that Jesus taught us to pray about and then maybe after some of the other prayer topics that we've learned, then maybe end with, Lord, here's what I'm asking for myself or for someone else on my prayer list. So it's not just always go to him in prayer and just ask, ask, ask for things, you know? Yeah. I like that. I'm a big fan of the country artist, Brad Paisley, and he has a song it never made a big hit, but on one of his albums, he talks about prayer and he says that, sometimes the answer is no. So he gave examples of, he, was a little boy and he saw his grandfather smoking outside the barn, and he asked God to, oh, give me some of those cigarettes so that I can taste it. And the answer was no.

Jennifer 20:30

Yeah. Or

Laurie 20:31

So, yeah.

Jennifer 20:32

in a different way than that. We never even thought. That, that might be how God decided to answer the prayer. And when I, think of my friend Cheryl that I told you about in the beginning where we were sitting in the sun, came down on her when she got diagnosed

Laurie 20:47

Mm-hmm.

Jennifer 20:48

well, she had been praying for years for her husband who was, struggling in his job and struggling with, emotional highs and lows. And she had been praying that he would have a steady job and that he would. Come out of that feeling of lowness, whatever. And then she got sick and her prayer was eventually answered, but she died because what happened was when she was sick, her husband did come out of that and he did get a job that was. In a totally different field, A field that actually helped her during her illness. And he, he

Laurie 21:27

Oh my gosh.

Jennifer 21:28

Yes. In that field after that. And he loved it. It was so much better than what he had ever had before. he

Laurie 21:35

Mm-hmm.

Jennifer 21:36

In taking care of her, he came out of whatever was bothering him. So her prayer was actually answered.

Laurie 21:46

Wow. That's very inspiring.

Jennifer 21:49

And his life was beautiful. Of course, he missed her and we all miss her every day. But, when we ask for things in prayer, we just need to trust that he knows, what's best

Laurie 22:00

One thing that's on my mind right now is yes, we pray. That's something that we should be doing on a daily basis. But in order to really recognize what God is doing for us or how he might be working in our lives, we have to know him better. Besides just praying to him and reading the Bible and studying the Bible and understanding it, is one way that we can get to know him better. He's the same God that we pray to that put. Adam and Eve on the earth. He's the same God who led the Egyptians out of Pharaoh's slavery. He's the same God who handed down the 10 commandments to Moses, and he's the same God who, put Jesus on the earth to save us. I mean it's just amazing when you think about it and we can learn so much about what is typical of him or what he could be seen to do for us by reading what he's done for others before us.

Jennifer 23:06

Absolutely. why I think he tells us to write it down to remember his faithfulness. And

Laurie 23:14

Yeah.

Jennifer 23:14

go back and we can, look and remember. And when we have another trial, which we will have,

Laurie 23:21

Right.

Jennifer 23:22

remember. He, was faithful. He is faithful. He's gonna work it all out. we

Laurie 23:28

you're absolutely right.

Jennifer 23:30

Yeah.

Laurie 23:31

You told us about, the prayer story for your friend Cheryl. Do you have any other prayer stories that you wanted to share about something that you prayed for either for a long time or a short time that came to be true and you knew it was God's work?

Jennifer 23:51

Yes. There's so many, but one that just came to mind is I had three children and, one of my children was, let's just call, a difficult child to raise. I got every book known to man and one of the books was James Dobson and his advice was, just get through it. You know? Okay. Okay. That actually was good that I actually appreciated that.'cause it freed me from thinking, oh, I'm doing something wrong. If I could just find the right key, you know? But it was just, just get through it. I did pray and of course pray and pray and pray. And pray and pray. And she is devoted to the Lord well adjusted. Member of polite society, everything you could think of today. And so I do believe that it was. Not really any of my efforts, but the prayer over her and her own choices. own choices, not that she made all good ones right along, as many of us have a journey. But no, it was a huge, huge to prayer.

Laurie 25:09

Oh, that's wonderful.

Jennifer 25:10

There's so many people and I'm praying for so many other people's children, and, I know he hears, yeah.

Laurie 25:16

Yeah. Yeah. And I was just reading something today about prayer, and I think something that it's important for us to remember is that as we are praying for, other people. For healing or for, a situation that's wrong and it needs to be corrected, you know, we're praying for God to take care of that. It's important for us to remember that. It's not us, it's not our own power or our own efforts that are going to heal the situation or, or repair the situation. All we can do is l lift it up to the Lord and then he will take care of it. There's really no. Reason, if you look at it that way, that we should feel disappointed when what we ask for, hasn't immediately happened or, or feel like, you know, we did it wrong or, whatever. It's not up to us. It's, it's up to our. Heavenly father who has a plan for everyone and everything. And one of my earlier essays in this series is about the power of prayer and it tells us in the Bible why we should pray what happens in heaven when we do pray. So yes, it's very valuable. Use of our time and, and it's a show of our faith, but in the end, we're not changing anything. It's up to him, to do that. What do you think about that?

Jennifer 26:47

He's omnipresent. He sees it all. We don't see it. We have such limited view Of the big

Laurie 26:54

Mm-hmm. Now you mentioned a website that you have. Do you wanna go into, a little more detail about what that website is and what purpose it's serving?

Jennifer 27:07

Writing with jet.com is my website right now. My main goal for the website is to bring people information about what I do, but also because I have a, blog newsletter that you can sign up for and I started it, it came out a few weeks ago, so you can go back and look in the archives and started the beginning if you'd like. But, I've asked different members, friends, other writers to. Send along their thoughts on how to leave a legacy for the generations that come after us. So it's called

Laurie 27:49

Okay.

Jennifer 27:51

Uh, you can follow my Facebook page, Jennifer e Tyrell, and see some of the, episodes there, but also just you could go on the website and click over it. You could subscribe and. It's, very interesting to hear everybody's stories. We all come from such different backgrounds and perspectives and on a different journey, so I find it, really uplifting.

Laurie 28:20

I look forward to looking at it. I look forward to, taking a look at what's there and seeing if I have anything to add.

Jennifer 28:27

I'd love to have you add something, Laurie, that would be wonderful. And any of your, listeners, if they would like to, you know, I say that at the end of each, of the blog posts. Please send me your stories if you'd like me to include them, and just. Overjoyed to to do that.

Laurie 28:48

We will put a link in the show notes so that anybody listening to the podcast wants to contribute. They'll have a place to see what you're looking for and a place to contribute. So we'll put that in there.

Jennifer 29:00

please

Laurie 29:01

Sure. Well, thank you very much. As we're wrapping up this, interview, I'm looking outside and talk about a beautiful day. In the South Carolina low country, and because I've been sitting here at my desk for quite some time, I think I am going to do like you and Cheryl did. I'm gonna go out for a beautiful walk on the beach.

Jennifer 29:22

That sounds great. I'm gonna do the polar plunge with a friend of mine today in, the cold

Laurie 29:29

Oh, okay.

Jennifer 29:31

30.

Laurie 29:31

What now? Tell me about that.

Jennifer 29:33

Well,

Laurie 29:34

you do the polar

Jennifer 29:35

we

Laurie 29:35

plunge?

Jennifer 29:35

in the neighborhood and it's pretty chilly right now, but, we're gonna get in anyway. We both grew up in the northeast on the same lake. Isn't that funny? We moved to this neighborhood,

Laurie 29:47

Wow.

Jennifer 29:47

in our sixties, both of us and yes. And so we aren't afraid of that cold New England water.

Laurie 29:55

How long do you stay in?

Jennifer 29:57

We try to stay in 30 minutes. It, it's

Laurie 30:01

Oh,

Jennifer 30:02

it's hard this time of year. You gotta really keep moving.

Laurie 30:05

That's a long time. Well make sure you have a warm robe and slippers sitting there, so that when you get out, you can go right into'em.

Jennifer 30:15

For sure, for sure. Thank you Laurie.

Laurie 30:17

All right. Well, thank you so much, Jennifer. It was such a pleasure speaking with you.

Jennifer 30:22

Oh, it's been such a pleasure being here.

30:27

and that's it for today. Thank you very much for being here with me on the year I read the Bible Podcast. We'll be back with another episode next week. If you enjoy this podcast, please do all the normal things to spread the word like it. Review it, share it with your friends. If you are interested in additional the year, I read the Bible resources such as the book, the video channel, and the blog, I will certainly include the links in the show notes, and I'd love to hear about your own journey to read the Bible cover to cover. Have you done it or are you doing it right now? Please reach out to me and let me know how it's going. Until next time, it's Lori Larson with the year I read the Bible. Bye.