“Have faith in God…

… I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘May you be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ and it will happen.” (Mark 11:23, NLT)

I learned about the mountains God could move one evening after Bible study when I was going through one of the hardest seasons of my life.

After our Bible study discussion, our leader asked for prayer requests. My mind swirled with the challenges and doubts and anxieties I was experiencing. I had so many prayer requests, I didn’t even know where to start so I usually kept my requests to myself or kept them very surface level. I was tired of praying for circumstances to change and mountains to move and watching nothing happen. I was tired of feeling like God was silent and far away when I needed Him the most. Maybe, just maybe, He would answer the prayers of these sweet ladies in my Bible study.

And so before I even knew what I was doing, I shared with those women everything that had been weighing on my soul and my mind for the last few years. The multiple diagnoses of both my sons. The challenges of meeting all their extra needs and their never-ending appointments to help them learn to do what came effortlessly to most children. My wrestling with why a good God would create and give me two children with special needs. Me questioning if God wasn’t answering my desperate prayers because my faith wasn’t strong enough.

After it all came spilling out, I looked at my hands clasped tightly in my lap, ashamed of the doubts and struggles I had dared to speak aloud. I feared their reaction to my vulnerability and yet yearned for God to move through one of these women. 

I will never forget what happened next. Without anyone saying a word, each woman abandoned her chair and Bible study materials and gathered around me. Each of them laid a hand on me and they took turns praying over me.

Warm, salty tears spilled down my cheeks and splattered onto my jeans as I listened to the prayers of these women. I honestly don’t remember a single specific thing that was prayed over me that night, but what stands out so clearly to me is that every single woman incorporated Scripture into her prayer.

They each took a turn boldly declaring the Word of God over me, my anxiety, my doubts, my faith, my struggles, my children, and my marriage. Scriptures they had memorized and perhaps even clung to in their own moments of need were infused into their prayers and claimed over me and my faith and my family.

Cocooned by the hands, love, and prayers of these women, I felt my storm of emotions and anxieties and doubts dissipate.

As the women finished their prayers and I joined them in their final ‘amen’, I realized my tears had changed from tears of grief and shame to those of joy and hope and thankfulness and freedom. 

I felt the power and peace and love of God in that moment. I experienced the power of praying Scripture and the power of praying together in a community. And I wanted to experience that power and peace and love for the rest of my life.

I was so moved by the way those women included Bible verses in their prayers for me that I was determined to learn to do the same. I devoured books about praying Scripture. 

The Bible became a new treasure trove of possibility to expand my prayer life and my faith. I looked up Scriptures to pray for the things nearest to my heart. Scriptures to pray for my marriage and my husband. Scriptures I could pray for my children. Scriptures to pray for our health, for our home, for our church, for our nation. 

I had prayed and prayed that God would heal my sons and restore my faith. Instead of healing my boys, through my newfound practice of praying Scripture He began teaching me a lot about faith and prayer and special needs parenting. He helped me to see that my children weren’t broken or in need of healing, but that they were “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm 139:14, NIV) and had so much to offer the world around them. He taught me a lot about His will and His goodness, about the power of praying Scripture and living in authentic community and so much more. 

Yes, God can move the mountains we ask Him to move. Prayers are prayed and then bodies are healed, souls saved, needs met in miraculous ways that could only be orchestrated by God. He was and still is a mountain-moving God.

But what I’ve learned is that often the mountains God moves are the ones in our hearts and mindsets.

And God moving those mountains, changing the terrain of our hearts and minds as our will is aligned with His will, is just as miraculous.

About the Book On the Same Page with God:

Do you feel discouraged by unanswered prayer? Maybe you feel like your prayer life has become routine and uninspired? Or maybe you’re searching for how to pray according to God’s will for a specific person or situation?

On the Same Page with God will help you view the Bible as a treasure trove of prayer possibilities, providing you with the words that can align your heart and your will with God. Within these pages, you will uncover the benefits of praying Scripture and experience the transformative power of getting on the same page with God, both literally and figuratively.

Filled with compelling narratives, biblical insights, practical prayer strategies, and lists of Scriptures to pray on a variety of topics, author Jenn Soehnlin invites you to revitalize your prayer life and deepen your faith with the practice of praying God's Word.

About Jenn: 

Jenn Soehnlin is a mother to two boys who are precious blessings and who both have special needs. She loves spending time with her family, curled up with a good book and a cup of coffee, enjoying a walk through nature, and writing. 
She is the author of Embracing This Special Life and On the Same Page with God and writes about faith, praying Scripture, special needs parenting, and more at www.embracing.life. 

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