When God Shows Up: Real Stories of FaithSample

Katie*

“...When Jesus saw their faith, he said, 'Friend, your sins are forgiven.'” Luke 5:20, NLT

Katie was prescribed intense pain medication for migraines as a child. Soon, she says, “My whole life was addiction.” Katie was in addiction, jail, rehab, or court-ordered programs for all of her son’s childhood and adolescence.

There are two miracles in the Gospel story of the paralytic man who is brought to Jesus: the miracle of healing and the miracle of forgiveness. Saint Cyril of Alexandria said that by healing the deeper wounds of the spirit first, Jesus freed the man in the story to experience true freedom and new life in a healthy body. He points out that Jesus may have been saying, “I must heal your soul before I heal your body. If this is not done, by obtaining strength to walk, you will only sin more.”

Katie experienced a life-changing encounter with Jesus while she was in prison. Volunteers who served in the prison chapel introduced Katie to Jesus. “I became changed because of how they loved me with God’s love,” Katie says. “They walked me into faith.” After her release from prison, Katie was matched with a Stand in the Gap small group of volunteers who mentored her during her transition into a life of true freedom. “My Stand in the Gap team had built their foundations so strong that they allowed me to stand on their foundation while I was building mine. My relationships were transformed because I was becoming transformed.”

Even having experienced the miraculous forgiveness of sins, there is room for doubt because this forgiveness is not visible. Saint Cyril points out that Jesus addresses the man’s deepest need first, then visibly demonstrates his power by healing the physical issue.

In Katie’s life, her healing is demonstrated in her recovery from addiction, her renewed relationship with her now-adult son, her marriage, and her work on the mission field.

She says, “I thought the best life could be for me would be that I wouldn’t use and would get a job that would pay the bills. But you don’t understand the abundance that’s out there. The best life you can think of in prison is fixing the life you already had. But the old is gone. God is laying the foundation for something new.”

Katie’s life has been made new through the healing she received in her soul. The no-less-miraculous change in her lifestyle is an outward sign of this inward work.

Do you consider the forgiveness of your sins to be a miracle? Why or why not?

*Name changed to protect privacy