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Matthew 17:27 – However, not to give offense to them, go to the sea and cast a hook and take the first fish that comes up, and when you open its mouth you will find a shekel. Take that and give it to them for me and for yourself. (ESV)
I have been preoccupied with the purchase of a replacement car, as the current one has now done 92,000 miles.
During the initial process of putting my toe in the water, I cried out to God, firstly, to find what I thought was the right car — with a 4×4 standard gearbox for towing a caravan. At the second place I looked, I was surprised to find a car with only 15,000 miles on the clock and but three years old.
Secondly, having found the car, then I asked Him to find the finances to make its purchase possible — if this was indeed the right one, and not just my unruliness, as so often is the case! Maybe, I was asking too much of God. This was potentially a very bad situation to put myself in, for a control freak like me.
A car makes it easier to do life's chores, but it is not essential. I did not want to let my track record of mistakes, which has burned me in the past, to prevent God from directing my path with this car, good or bad.
Still, I knew that this was a big request — not of God, but of my own faith and expectancy, which tend to evaporate when faced with sustained opposition in life. I have had so many doors slammed closed that I find it hard to accept an open one.
With my almost-trusting stress waking me up early, I humbly asked God for His peace which passes all understanding, which again surprisingly came straight away — a good sign.
Could it be that God was in this? It seemed unlikely when I looked at the amounts of money involved, as I had not expected to find a car straight away.
Wonderfully, my mother-in-law said that she had previously decided to give us a contribution towards the purchase of a car — amazingly, the exact amount that I had prayed for! Even more improbably, the tax man gave us some money, too. This was just enough to make the monthly payments possible.
I asked some friends to pray for wisdom. They prayed that if it were right, as a confirmation, I would get a better deal from the garage for the transaction, which happened. Later this week, I will swap the old car for a newer one.
What can we take away from this experience? God hears the desires of our hearts and is interested enough in each of our situations to want to encourage us and to walk with us through the challenge of being out of our comfort zone. He sees us through our life involvements and shows us that He is still with us for what comes next.
Prayer: Lord, You are the One we can trust, through circumstances good or bad. Forgive us our frailties, and set our feet upon the rock of the salvation and grace that You have provided. You know what we need before we ask it. Holy Spirit, come and abide in us today, and go with us into the day ahead. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
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Amen, Rod.
Sounds like you took all the wise spiritual steps necessary to make a godly decision Rod. Enjoy the new car!
Blessings.
Dear Rod,
Your faith has been answered in many amazing ways. Bless the Lord and enjoy your new car. May you continue to seek God to help you.
Rod, how readily I can identify with your predicament. So many times, I have taken the wrong route, impatient in God’s timing. Thanks for such a clear example of the path to God’s peace.
Thank you Rod
You sound just like my husband who says he finds it hard to ask and believe after having doors closed to his prayers over the years.
I hope your writing encourages him today.
God bless you.
Enjoy those new wheels! Guess we could say you’re riding with God. Your story reminded me of my friend’s experience with an apartment. The more she prayed about the move and the money, the more things fell into place. I’ll share your story with her. Thanks for sharing.
Oh Rod, how I identified with your message today! I too am in the process of changing vehicles — yes- out of my comfort zone but I certainly felt the assurance that God was directing me, and all the ‘necessary details’ fell into place! How Great is our God!!!
All the best as you continue to ‘ask a lot’… (never too much for God)!
Hello Rod,
Good advice in your devotional this morning. Yes, our Lord is the one we can go to and He is there to understand and help us through any circumstance we face. We owe Him much praise, gratitude, and honour for His unending dedication to us.
Blessings for your devotional writings.
Morning Rod,
Is the “caravan” the same as what we call a “recreational vehicle?” With the pandemic those vehicles have become more and more popular in this country. This weekend is the Memorial Day Weekend in the US, which honors those who have fought in the wars to protect our country. It is the first holiday since the rules regarding the pandemic have lessened. The television news reports untold numbers of folks hitting the road this weekend. We are staying home!!
As always, your writing is appreciated.
Good Morning Roderick
Love the devotional today!!! God is truly amazing and all caring no matter the size of the request or situation.
I had the nerve to ask God to put it on somebody’s heart to buy us a new car, that we could really use a new car. I thanked God and then church started. This just came to me to ask, when a couple walked by to their seats, I guess because they just bought a new car. At any rate, never told anyone about this, never really gave it another thought to tell the truth. Before the week was over, I got a phone call from a lady I knew, but she had just been at the accountants and she had to get rid of some money or pay taxes soooooo!!! yes, she said she was sending a cheque to us. I asked about personal licence that would glorify God, and I came up with a few words but decided to keep quiet and wait for the answer and there it was Prayed 4. So, it is a testimony every time I am out driving. I have gotten several positive remarks and it has opened the door for conversation how it came to be. Since moving, I have already had the opportunity of sharing the goodness of Jesus. It is so exciting to see what God does when we ask!!! Even more, the Bible says to be specific so no one can say it way by chance (not sure exact wording) and that is what we both did, and God looked after everything.
God bless.
Good morning, afternoon, or evening 🙂
Well, I read with both surprise and wonder your devotional.
My husband (a Minister) and I went through a similar situation last January. We REALLY needed a new vehicle, well newer.
Like you, I and we have often ‘gone ahead’ of God and reaped the resulting financial burden. This time I was adamant that I, and of course ‘he’ would PRAY, LISTEN and WAIT. Often our own or singular enthusiasm gets in the way of all or one of the afore-mentioned requisites to answered prayer.
I had read that when praying, one should be specific, using as many details as possible. So I thought, why not.
I started by building a ‘wish list’ based on our real ‘needs’ and was brave enough to add our ‘hopes’.
I placed them all on a big enough sticky note to contain a prayer, a God promise and the ‘wish list’. I posted it on our bathroom mirror and everyday, every time we looked in the mirror, we’d recite it.
In anticipation, we started looking online at used cars on the top of our list.
We investigated everything, what problems might occur, fuel mileage realities, total car cost over 5 years, etc. You name it, we looked into it.
One day after praying, in my mind’s eye, I saw this black SUV sitting in our driveway. At first I thought I was just wishful thinking, yet I hadn’t been praying or thinking about it prior to the ‘view’. I shared this with my husband but didn’t get our hopes up.
We also needed MAJOR help with financing a car, never mind an SUV, yet this was our wish.
A month or so later, my husband’s sister called and said both she and her husband, separately, felt God calling them to help us so we could buy the vehicle we really wanted. Needless to say, we were in total shock!! This enabled us to make the necessary commitment within our finances to look seriously at a newer car. EVERYTHING changed in that one phone call.
Three days later we found a vehicle for sale. We prayed for God’s wisdom, and ‘please hit us over the head if it’s wrong or right.
The vehicle was a couple of years older than our cutoff point and had more miles/kilometres than we wanted but we took it out for a test drive. At one point I remember thinking maybe this is the best we can do and should just ‘take it’.
Suddenly my husband says, “Do you have any other CRV’s in the lot?”
To our surprise the young man responds, “As a matter of fact we just got one in this morning. We haven’t even had a chance to clean it up.”
(WHAT?) God does the ‘too good to be true’!!
Newer and less milage. We took it!! As always, God’s timing was perfect!
This vehicle ticked ALL our wants – hopes – and ‘in your dreams’ wish list and even things we didn’t know actually existed.
This is God’s SUV, pure and simple.
God bless your days and nights.