Miracles: How my Journey through Sickness is Transforming my mind

 Miracles

I’ve always believed that miracles are possible, but I’ve struggled to believe they are possible for me. I’ve believed in God and believed He hears our prayers, but, underneath it all, I mostly felt He didn’t really want to answer mine. Maybe I wasn’t good enough, or my prayers were too selfish, or I just wasn’t worthy. But when I got sick, I didn’t have the time or energy to become “good enough” for my prayers to be answered. So, I just prayed—desperately—that I would see miracles and be healed. And through those raw, honest prayers, I began to have a shift in my mindset. My faith started to grow, and I began to realize that God does hear me and wants to answer my prayers. Sometimes, I think, He just wants us to keep on praying, to keep believing, and to train our minds to accept that miracles are possible for us.

In this time, I’ve been reading books on prayer, listening to others share their miracle stories—some answered, some not—and surrounding myself with Bible verses, even posting them on my wall. It’s like a training ground. Sometimes, before we can see miracles, we need to train our minds to believe in them. When I share my own experiences, some people immediately praise God with me, amazed and happy. Others think it must be a coincidence or don’t see it as proof that God cares, and that’s okay. But I’ve come to realize that this guarded mindset, born out of fear of disappointment, can actually keep us from seeing the miracles right in front of us. The more you believe, the more miracles you’ll see.

Believing means choosing to see verses like “nothing shall be impossible with God” (Luke 1:37) as truth, even when what you see with your eyes is sickness or death. It means choosing to fill your mind with the good, with reminders of God’s love, with the simple joys in life—like puppies and nature. It’s a discipline, and I’ve learned that, especially with depression or sickness, it takes work to focus on the good. When you’re struggling, it’s easy to focus on the darkness, hoping it will help you find a cure, but it only leaves you spinning in circles.

So, as part of focusing on the good, I want to share and remember the miracles I’ve seen so far, believing this is just the beginning. My mom once told me a woman at her church said our family would be prayer warriors, and I’ve held onto that ever since. I want to be a prayer warrior—someone who sees their prayers answered and fights darkness with light. Sometimes, I believe, prayer is the most powerful weapon we have. 

So to keep up my faith and proclaim it with others I wanted to share some of the miracles I’ve experienced recently:

1. One Sunday, I forgot my heart medicine. The day before, just driving around, my heart rate was at 120-130, and I worried about it all day. But I didn’t want to miss church, so I prayed, “God, be my medicine.” Amazingly, my heart rate stayed stable for the entire day.

2. I continued to pray, asking God to keep being my medicine. And for an entire month, I didn’t have any issues with my heart rate at all.

3. Nowadays, my heart rate does increase a bit if I do something strenuous like chores for 20 minutes or more, but I’m no longer dependent on heart medication.

4. I also prayed for instant healing from my thyroiditis, but it didn’t happen. For a while, I felt angry and wondered if God even existed. If He was real, why wouldn’t He just heal me? But I kept praying, and somewhere along the way, my faith transformed. I began to believe that God was using my illness for a reason, and that healing would come—but in a different way.

5. That shift in my mindset became a miracle in itself. I had been trapped in a deep depression for months. If you’ve experienced depression, you know it can come in waves, sometimes manageable, but other times it’s like being stuck in darkness. For a long time, I was in that stuck place, unable to pull myself out. Strangely, it was through facing my worsening health that my depression lifted. I realized that though I was depressed before, I could still get out of bed and function. But now, with my physical health declining, I saw that it could be worse. Oddly, that realization made me feel grateful, and my mindset changed. It wasn’t the sort of thing someone else could have just told me—I had to go through it myself to feel that shift. I know it was something good, something like God, that gave me this renewed perspective. I couldn’t have done it on my own.

6. Since then, I’ve faced some depression again here and there, but I haven’t been stuck in it the way I was before. That in itself is a miracle.

7. Through all of this, I’ve realized that my obsession with finding a “cure” for my depression through medication and other therapies was consuming too much of my life. It’s one thing to seek help; it’s another to put your life on hold until you feel “fixed.” Ironically, that mindset was stopping me from actually moving forward.

8. One day at church, there was an altar call specifically for people with hypothyroid issues. By then, my thyroid had shifted from hyper- to hypothyroidism—a significant and unexpected answer to my prayers.

9. During a difficult time financially, I needed some very specific items to follow a health-focused diet. My church has a pantry where they give free groceries to those in need, so I prayed and asked God for these specific items. When I checked the pantry, I was amazed to find almost everything I needed, even items I’d never seen there before.

10. At church, I overheard a girl talking to a friend about hypothyroidism. I mentioned I had it too, and she offered encouragement and shared a supplement that helped her.

11. I discovered an app called Nourish that lets you consult a nutritionist specializing in functional medicine. And it’s covered by my insurance! This felt like a miracle in itself.

12. One night, I prayed for extra money, and the next morning, I received two unexpected offers to pet-sit and earn some extra cash.

13. A lone star tick bit me recently, and a test at the vet revealed that my dog had been bitten by the same kind of tick and developed an infection. Thankfully, he’s doing fine, as most dogs can fight it off. Interestingly, this was around the same time I developed my thyroiditis infection. While the tests showed my illness wasn’t tick-borne, the timing was enough for me to look into further testing. My dog’s experience was like a reminder, urging me to be vigilant. He’s a little miracle to me.

14. I’ve struggled for years to find the motivation to work on my voice acting, but depression, anxiety, and ADHD held me back. Yet after facing thyroiditis, I found a new drive to pursue my dreams. This health scare reminded me that life is precious, and now I’m determined to go after what I love. I’d prayed for motivation for so long, and God answered—but in the most unexpected way.

15. Through my illness, I’ve gained a deeper understanding of the importance of diet. I can no longer ignore the possibility of food allergies, like to dairy or gluten, and I’m now working with a nutritionist to get the right tests and determine the best diet for me.

16. A few months before I became ill, I felt a cold coming on—itchy throat, heat, headaches, stuffiness, and sneezing. I prayed for God to heal me from the cold, and by the next day, I felt perfectly fine. (I also prayed for my broken-down car, but it’s still sitting in my driveway!)

17. Menstrual pain has always been a struggle for me. The first day is usually unbearable, with constant cramps requiring 3 ibuprofen every 4 hours. But this time, I prayed, and while the pain didn’t fully disappear, the second day was far less painful. This was huge for me, as I’m trying to avoid ibuprofen, which can harm the liver. By reducing my reliance on medication, I’m better able to support my thyroid health.

I’m witnessing more miracles than ever and learning that God truly does hear our prayers. I continue to believe for complete healing of my thyroid, leaky gut, adrenals, and for relief from depression, brain fog, and ADHD. I believe God will heal me. Even when prayers aren’t answered in the way or time we hope, I trust that He has a better plan. Even if we don’t see these things come to pass in this life, there’s a world beyond where all prayers are ultimately fulfilled, and it’s just a matter of time.