Yes, God Can Provide Miracles, but Can He Really Help Me?

By Ashley Brooksby

Heavenly Father wants me to exercise faith in the Savior more than in my own knowledge.

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Jesus Christ comforting a weeping woman

“You are not Moses, and this is not the Red Sea!”

Laman and Lemuel throw these words at Nephi in the Book of Mormon video for 1 Nephi 17–18. While this specific conversation isn’t recorded in the account in 1 Nephi 17, the dialogue in the video feels believable.

These words struck me as I remembered times that I had thought similar things—about myself.

Has this ever happened to you?

Although we may believe that miracles can happen, we don’t really see how they would happen to us. Sure, God could help Moses part the Red Sea, but how can He help me with the seemingly insurmountable challenges I’m facing?

In mortal life, especially as young adults, we face a lot of challenges:

Looking for jobs
Trying to start families
Finding eternal companions with the same values
Trying to forgive people who seem unforgivable
Figuring out how to feel forgiven ourselves

In my own ongoing challenges, I sometimes find myself feeling like God wants me to figure out the solution on my own. While He does want me to exercise faith and agency, I have also felt the Spirit teaching me to be more like Nephi and rely on my faith in the Savior more than on my own knowledge.

Now, in times of distress, I try to remember Nephi’s bold testimony of faith in response to his doubting brothers:

“If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. …

“… If the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that He cannot instruct me?” (1 Nephi 17:50–51).

This feels so powerful.

I am striving to be more like Nephi, who believes that God will always prepare a way. If God can help Moses part the Red Sea, surely He can help me find a way through my own challenges (see Exodus 14).

So, although we might not experience a miracle as big and tangible as parting the Red Sea, I believe if we have faith in Jesus Christ, we will find our own miracles—both big and small, and not always in the way we expect.

Some of us may find great jobs, or we may find a divine increase in patience as we wait for one.

We may be miraculously blessed with children or miraculously placed in a position to serve one.

Others may be divinely guided to new friends or find their eternal companions when they least expect it.

On our journey to forgive others, we may find a personal understanding of the ultimate miracle of Jesus Christ and His Atonement, and by doing so, we may be able to forgive ourselves too.

President Russell M. Nelson promised: “The Lord will bless you with miracles if you believe in Him, ‘doubting nothing’ [Mormon 9:21]. Do the spiritual work to seek miracles. Prayerfully ask God to help you exercise that kind of faith.”

By doing the spiritual work to follow Jesus Christ and trust in Heavenly Father, we will find that miracles are waiting, just for us, because God is truly “a God of miracles” (Mormon 9:19).