This past Sunday Pastor Leon preached an awesome message on prayer that has kept my mind rolling this week. Not only the conditions for true prayer ~ a clean and pure heart ~ but simply realizing that God does answer some of the prayers that seem silly or fulfills the desires of our heart that we may not have even specifically prayed about. It is so important to store those special answers away in a “faith chest” in our heart of hearts to remind us of God and His faithfulness when times of struggle and not understanding Him face us.
I was reminded of the way God specifically answers prayers in many ways already this week and thought some of them were to good not to share.
Lowell has been needing another truck as his is getting pretty rusty and because of its age is requiring more and more work. He has been browsing trucks on Ebay for probably close to a year and finally found one that is pretty much exactly what he wanted. Not only is it 4 door, it has big mirrors perfect for pulling the camper, and it has a bigger motor (mundane details to me right?!) But the clincher to me was the color. Lowell has always liked white and guess what color the “new” truck is?! WHITE! Now I am not saying he sat there and specifically told God about each of these details but he did mention them frequently to me so (I like to think) God having over heard them worked it all out and even threw in a great price as part of the deal.
I don’t have a good picture of the truck yet but I was having fun with the camera and its night settings 😉
With the neat answers to prayer I have been conscious of this week I had to think back to one of my first distinct memories where I grasped the fact that God simply likes to bless us with the desires of our hearts. I was 18 and in the market for my first car. I happened to be in love with the color burgandy and remember specifically kneeling by my bed and earnestly asking God to help me find the right car. At the end of the prayer I remember almost feeling embarrassed as I added this line “and God, if you wouldn’t mind, could you possibly have the car be burgandy?” I lay down and went to sleep with a sense of excitement and just knew God was going to take care of it all. I don’t remember how long it took but one day we found THE car in the local paper and I excitedly made the call. Not only was it perfect, it was from someone I knew in a round about way who happened to be local youth pastors and who understood my great excitement when at the end of the conversation I hesitantly asked what color it was. The man paused and said “well it’s kind of reddish, burgandy I would call it” That sealed the deal and the car was mine indeed.
My faithful first and very burgandy car!
In the old testament after the children of Israel won a war with the dreaded Philistines Samuel took a giant rock and set it out for all to see and called it the Rock Ebenezer meaning the rock of help, because they had prayed earnestly to God for his help and He had indeed rescued them in a very difficult time.
It is my hope that my children will grow to come to faith in this amazing God and that they will always know and acknowledge how capable He is of answering the prayers of our hearts, even the ones that are beyond the necessary and that our family’s Rock Ebenezers will remain strong reminders for future generations of Millers.
God is so good to honor the small details of our lives! I don’t always understand his way of answering or his timing and why simple things like the colors of a car are honored while those around us struggle with big mountains like chemo and cancer and 2nd open heart surgeries but I know He is good and has the best interest of all of us close to HIS heart.
