Your Miracle Invitation
Do you know about the Ladd Family Friday 5!?! If you don’t - you’re missing out! (Here’s a link to last week’s, and here’s a link to subscribe.) I’m part of the Ladd Family every week, and I never know what to happen. Chris Ladd does not disappoint with his crazy combination of loving people, sharing our daily lives, and finding the perfect GIFs.
Here’s a powerful excerpt from last Friday’s:
“We are a miracle family. It was a miracle that God brought Kacy, Lifa, and I together in a tiny little town in South Africa. It was a miracle that I told Kacy she was the woman I wanted to marry and she didn’t run away from me. It was a miracle that two missionaries and a boy that did not exist came together and got married. It was a miracle that God knit our family together the way that he did.
It was a miracle the first time we were stranded in Swaziland and Kacy’s visa was found to be fake and we could not get back into South Africa, where Lifa was waiting on us at his dad’s house. It was a miracle that day when we drove two hours to a small border post and covered the inside of my truck with prayer.
It was a miracle when Kacy was completely healed of PCOS and was able to get pregnant. It was a miracle when God healed my body and my soul and I was able to begin to find freedom from anxiety and depression. It was a miracle when Kacy stood inside the department of education’s head office and (after begging and crying) the head of the department allowed Lifa to legally attend school despite not having a record or ID. It was a miracle every time we stood in the principals office at previous schools and begged and demanded that they educate Lifa despite his circumstances and they always did (even though it was highly illegal!!!).
It was a miracle when we drove to our family lawyers office and picked up the guardianship papers for Lifa.
It was a miracle last year when I was hit head on by a speeding car while on my bike and I got up and walked away from it despite going through and over a windshield and car….
I want you to think about your miracle. The thing that you are too afraid to believe for. I want you to draw it out. Literally draw it out. Write it down. Circle it. Every day take that miracle and thrust it to heaven with all your might. Your Heavenly Father hears you and has compassion on you. He may and he may not give you or do for you what you ask but what is guaranteed is that he will minister to your heart better than you could ever imagine. Over the last year and a half we are new and different creations, Kacy and I. Every day we wait on God to deliver a miracle and every day He makes us stronger, more resilient, more thankful, more joyful, more faithful, and most importantly more loved.
Draw your miracle. Circle it. Stay positioned for it. If you share your miracle with us then we will stand with you. You will have the Ladd Family praying with you and for you. We will call out for God’s listening ear with you. I promise you that.”
I’ve walked this road with him every day, and I was moved to tears. Because miracles don’t happen like movies. They aren’t experiences you watch - not even the 3-hour ones that engross you so much you find yourself screaming, “I’ll never let go Jack!”
Miracles are something you participate in. They shape you as you face your raging sea with the enemy closing in on you. They are only activated when you realise there’s no where to go without something greater than you intervening. They rise out of the deepest need, desire and desperation you’ve ever known.
Miracles surprise you. They are the real-life proof of a God whose ways are higher, bigger and better than your greatest dream. They create a way when there’s not one - even if it seems outlandish and no one else understands it.
Miracles require of you. Imagine your greatest dead-end opening into a road carved through raging water walls - with no way of knowing how long these walls would stand. You have no miracle when you watch. You have to go for it.
Miracles are for more than you. They are for sharing. We have a gracious God who knows that we need each other to borrow and build faith. Your miracles give me something to lean into when my heart gets weary. There are days when praying for my miracles leaves me feeling anxious and fearful. And those are the days when I can pray for yours and think on the glory of God I’ve already seen. I don’t have to pray for my miracles constantly when I can praise the miracle God who knows me better than I know myself.
I loved Chris’ post in the Friday Five because when we rehearse our miracles, it boosts our faith. A few people wrote us to share the miracles they were praying for so that we could circle them and stand with them. And that’s what I wanted to write about today. Those messages meant so much to us.
Thank you for trusting us to call heaven down to earth on your behalf and doing the same for us. The more miracle-callers there are, the more faith-building, hell-breaking, heaven-shaking we can do.
Miracles display the glory of God. I want in on that. This post is more of an invitation than a story. I’d like to invite you to send your miracle-request and know I’m going to write it down. I will stand for your miracle with you. On the days you just can’t pray for it, you’ll know it’s covered. I’ll guard it with the sanctity it deserves and not share it with others. And I’ll celebrate every heaven-opening victory with you as you share it with me. I can’t wait!!!
Let’s bring heaven down!
Art work by the one and only Chris Ladd.