Possibilities…I Have a Testimony!

Date: March 28, 2008

Devotional: Possibilities: I Have a Testimony

Scripture Verse: Mark 9:23

Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.

MARK 9:23

This particular verse deals with a story in the book of Mark where a boy needed healing. He had a mute spirit that would come upon him, throw him down, cause him to foam at the mouth, gnash his teeth, and become rigid. His parents did all they could do to cast this spirit out of their son. The father of the boy asked Jesus to have compassion on them and to help them. And, that’s when Jesus replied with our scripture for today, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.”

You see…the boy’s father had some doubt and unbelief. He cried out to Jesus and said, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.” Jesus immediately proceeded to heal the boy.

Every single one of us, at some point in our lives, has experienced a feeling of doubt or unbelief. But, the Lord tells us that all things are possible to him that believeth. There are ALWAYS possibilities, IF only you would believe.

I HAVE A TESTIMONY!!!

On March 26, 2008, what seemed impossible became a possibility and a reality to me. After searching for a number of years, I finally found my older half sister thanks to MySpace. My half sister, Tracey, and I have the same father but not the same mother. She is 4 years older than I am and has lived in North Carolina all of her life. We didn’t grow up together, but we have kept in touch off and on over the years. The last contact I had with her was around 2003 when we spoke on the phone. At that time, we talked about my nephew who was around 12 years old at the time and the fact that she had gotten married. During that conversation, I failed to get her married name.

A year or so goes by….

During the Christmas holiday of 2005, I decided to send Tracey a Christmas card. Unfortunately, the card was sent back to me stamped ‘Returned to Sender’. My heart just dropped and it was at this point I knew I had really lost track of her. All of the phone numbers I had for her were disconnected. The email address I had for her was invalid. I had moved, so my all of my contact information had changed including my email address.

My search begins….

I thought about my sister all the time and would search for her via the internet every chance I could get. All I had to help me…an old address and her maiden name. I would enter her name in search engines and each time turned up empty-handed. I would enter her name in Whitepages.com and turned up empty-handed also. Using USSearch.com, I was able to find out that she had numerous addresses in Wilmington, Aurora, Rocky Point, Raleigh, and Burgaw in North Carolina. That’s as far as I got with finding my half sister.

On March 26, 2008, I was recovering from surgery and my mother visiting from Mississippi and helping to care for me. She asked me had I tried looking for my sister, Tracey, recently and I replied to her that I had indeed searched for her recently. As I sat with her watching television, something popped into my head…a last resort. I could try searching for Tracey by using my nephew’s name. I knew he would be around 17 years of age now.

Many teenagers use MySpace as a form of communication nowadays. I also use MySpace as a form of communication. I decided to perform a search on MySpace using my nephew’s name. Lo and behold, when I performed the search, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The second profile on the results page stood out to me. The profile included a picture of a teenage boy who resembled my sister and childhood pictures that I had of my nephew. I couldn’t view the profile in its entirety because it was set to private. So, I decided to send a friend request in hopes that he would respond and add me as a friend to his MySpace page. I kept myself logged in continuously awaiting some sort of response.

The next day, I checked to see had there been any activity on MySpace. I noticed he had added me as a friend to his MySpace page and he was also logged in at the time. I decided to send him a message explaining my situation. I waited for a response, but nothing happened. He soon logged out and once again my heart dropped. Was this another dead end?

About an hour later, he logged in again and a few minutes later I received a message on MySpace. The subject of the message read ‘Hi it’s Tracey’. I immediately became excited and teary-eyed. I told my mother and she became happy for me. I sent my sister a message back and from there a string of messages was passed back and forth. We exchanged contact information that evening. I FOUND MY LONG LOST HALF SISTER AND NEPHEW!!! THANK YOU LORD AND THANK YOU MYSPACE!!! My search is now over. I will NEVER lose contact with her ever again…if I can help it. It was my faith in God and my belief that one day I would find her that made all of this possible.

All things are possible to him that believeth. What an amazing promise this is! I can hardly believe this was written for me…for you. The Lord has opened so many doors to me, simply because I have faith in Him.

We must understand this amazing promise doesn’t mean we can demand anything we want. There are plenty of wrong things in this world—or things that would simply be wrong for us —that the Lord’s promise doesn’t automatically cover. But the Lord has given us an open door to all the good things He offers us, all the positive things that we can do, and all the challenges He wants us to overcome.

When it comes to the things the Lord says are right, we don’t want to think too small. All things are possible in the Lord.