Whoever would think that having your car stolen would turn out to be a blessing? But God sometimes works in a way that tests our faith and supplies our needs at the same time.
We were visiting our friend Sharon and her two young children while her husband was out of town on business. On Saturday evening while we were chatting at the supper table, the subject of her car came up.
“Oh, yes. It’s a good little car, and I really depend on it,” Sharon said, “but it needs an oil change, and it needs the brakes checked, and some other things too.”
The next morning when we got up, Sharon asked us, “Did either of you drive my car this morning?”
“No, we don’t even know where you keep the keys,” I answered.
“This is strange,” she said. “It’s not in the driveway where I parked it yesterday.”
We both looked out the second-floor window. We could see the driveway and all around the neighborhood, but we didn’t see a little yellow car.
“We’d better pray about this,” I said. “It must have been stolen.”
I prayed first, that the car would be found. Then Sharon prayed for the person who had stolen the car, that whoever it was would find the tracts that were in it and read them and be saved by trusting in Christ’s precious shed blood.
Then Sharon picked up the phone to call her insurance agent. But she stopped. She said she knew he would be going to his Sunday morning worship service, so she put the phone down, saying, “I’ll wait until this afternoon. I wouldn’t want him to have this theft on his mind this morning ... it might interfere with his worshipping the Lord.”
After breakfast, we all left in our car for our worship service. After we came back, Sharon called her insurance agent and the police.
The police officer answering her call said, “Oh yes, we already have your car at the garage.” Then he went on to tell her that a photographer had been down at the railroad tracks taking pictures of the trains. He noticed a bright yellow car hidden in the tall grass where no one would be able to see it unless the person was standing right by the tracks. He had thought that it was a very unusual place to park a car, so he called the police, and they had picked it up.
When we drove Sharon to pick up her car, the people at the garage told her that the law required that they thoroughly inspect every stolen car, changing the oil, checking the brakes and putting each vehicle back into tiptop shape for the owner. So they loaned Sharon another car until they finished the required work on her car.
We left the garage with thanksgiving in our hearts for the Lord’s goodness. While we ate lunch together, we had a good chuckle over God’s method of providing car care. Then Sharon said, “This is just like what God says in Isaiah 65:24: ‘Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.’”
“That’s right,” said my husband. “And it reminds me of Philippians 4:19 too: ‘My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus.’”
Do you have a problem that’s bothering you? If you have accepted the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, it doesn’t matter if you are a little person or a big person; He wants you to tell Him about your problems. He delights to answer prayers, and He sometimes solves problems in unusual ways.
MEMORY VERSE: “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24
ML-05/23/2010