Last night, I was sitting on the couch, happily knitting away, when my nose got stuffy.
Dramatic, right?
Naturally, I was peeved. Why was my nose stuffy? Was I catching a cold? Where could I have caught a cold? I didn’t want to be sick. I was about to go to bed and I wouldn’t be able to breathe, and it would be annoying.
Admittedly, not the end of the world. But still.
An hour later, my nose still clogged, I packed my knitting away and went to spend time with Jesus before bed.
A bit of honest confession: prayer is not something I’m super good at. I don’t believe prayer has to be complicated, but I do think you have to show up for it — that is, consciously choose to talk to God — and I often lack the discipline to actually take time to pray. When I do, a lot more of my prayers than I’d care to admit start with some variation of, “Jesus, I hate to say it, but … I’m not feeling this right now. So please come and help me and make this time meaningful and valuable, because I’m bringing nothing and I’d rather be in bed.”
That’s how I began last night. Then I decided to pray about what was truly weighing on my mind at 11:45 on a Thursday night … my stuffy nose. The Lord is the Great Physician, so I asked Him to heal it.
“Lord, I pray that You would take away my stuffy nose so that I can breathe clearly tonight. I pray that You would clear away any cold or sickness. In the name of Jesus I declare that the stuffy nose has no place here. Amen.”
That was it.
And then, within ten seconds, I could feel the congestion in my nose clearing away.
One little prayer, and I could breathe.
WHAT?
I was pretty excited, to say the least. So as I continued my prayers, my eyes wide in amazement, I said, “Jesus, I guess I should get a little more invested in this, because clearly You’re listening!” And yes, that evening I prayed with a lot more passion and confidence than I can normally muster just before going to bed.
A few minutes later, as I was crawling under the covers, I started to feel the congestion returning. So as my head hit the pillow, I put a hand on my nose and, in a barely audible whisper, prayed once more. “Lord, I ask that You would clear up my nose completely. In the mighty name of Jesus I declare that the stuffiness has to go away. And Lord, please heal it all so that when I wake up in the morning, I don’t have a cold or any lingering stuffiness.”
And once again, seconds later, I could feel my nose clear up and my breathing become easy.
I’m pretty sure my last thought before I fell asleep was, WOW.
And when I woke up, sure enough, my nose was fine!
* * *
I think one of the reasons my prayers are often dry is because my faith gets small. I don’t completely trust that God will respond to me, that the prayers I lift up to Him will make any difference. And so I don’t want to take time to pray; when I do, I’m tempted to list some requests and leave rather than actually sit with Jesus.
And then God does something like clearing my congestion in a matter of seconds to remind me that yes, He hears my prayers, and yes, He does respond, and respond in power.
In a way, this is a very little story. My nose was stuffy — big whoop. If I’d had to go to sleep with a little congestion, it would have been fine, really.
But this little story renewed my faith a hundredfold. It reinvigorated me last night to pray with boldness and expectation over much greater things in my life and the world. And it revived my confidence that God does the same awesome work here in the United States that He does around the globe on the World Race and international mission field.
God invites me to pray big prayers: prayers for healing, salvation, provision, protection; prayers for every need I ever encounter. And He asks me to pray in faith and confidence, trusting that He hears His children, loves us and responds. But if I don’t trust Him to heal a stuffy nose, how can I trust Him to heal serious things like cancer? Or provide all the funds I need for the Fellowship? Or give friends and family members faith in Him and bring them to salvation?
I’m thankful that last night, my nose got stuffy so that God could put His glory on display.
And I’m so, so thankful when God gives me the gift of a little thing so that I can have faith for things much, much greater.
