The power of prayer... another faithbuilder

Well, I wrote a couple days ago about our van having transmission problems and trusting God in it. Bill and I were just having a conversation about how we are learning what COMPLETE surrender to God looks like. What does it look like to put your ENTIRE life in the hands of the Lord? I consider myself adventurous and spontaneous and I like surprises and anticipation of things. The more I consider surrendering my "everything" to God the more I realize that it is probably the most adventurous way to live. BK and I were talking about how easy it is for us to pray about our family, our physical and emotional problems... pray for other people. THe one thing we don't go to God on regularly is our finances. I believe God is so excited when we pray and speak to him about our needs, regardless of whether or not the prayer is answered we can please the Lord by just having the conversation with Him. And if there is one thing I want to do in this life is to be as pleasing to the Lord and walk with him in that journey.

Anyway, back to the van... this story is a faithbuilder for me. BK and I took our van to a mechanic to have some kind of C joints fixed. It was making knocking sounds when we turned the wheel right or left. This mechanic works on an rebuilds vehicles, so we considered him pretty knowledgeable in his field. We prayed about the problem and we had to pay out $300.00 total for parts and labor. We had planned to get this fixed before the baby came, so we were happy to get it completed.

After we picked it up Friday afternoon, I drove it into town. On my way into town it stopped working. I had the gears in drive I was pressing the gas and NOTHING was happening. I had slowed to a stop. When I shifted into park... it wouldn't even engage. It was making crazy noises. So my friend Jinny came to meet me and help me, and then these nice ladies saw my 8 month pregnant booty outside of my car and pushed me into a parking lot with Jinny, where I sat and waited for my husband. My husband called the mechanic and he told us to "check the fluid levels." That's it.

So we checked them. BK filled up the fluids and we still had no way to make the car move. In both our brains the transmission was shot... it was a flukey thing and we were going to have to shell out a couple thousand to fix the transmission problem or buy a new vehicle. (NOT GOOD)

We ended up having the car towed to the Honda dealership.. (we needed their expertise). They worked on Saturday's and could diagnose it and let us know what the problem may have been. Then we waited.... we prayed Friday night... we asked God to make this better, we prayed again on Saturday night and we prayed on Sunday night (after our Pastor Linn preached on Prayer Sunday morning! :). We prayed for what we wanted to happen with the van, we prayed for the mechanic who made the mistake, we prayed over our finances, we asked for God to meet us in every detail.

Praying specifically for things is something I am learning to do as well. God loves to answer our prayers... he adores it when we come to Him. So I was going to lay it all out. I told God, first let this not be a "wrecked transmission", and if it is, please provide us with a vehicle we can afford Lord. The money we have saved was for my maternity leave. You know what's in there, if there is something that can be fixed, please make sure we have the money to cover it. I know God is not an "order taker" but even just relying on him in prayer gave me peace no matter what the outcome. God is good.

Well, yesterday our prayers were answered. The mechanic from Honda called and told us that the passenger side C joint was not installed properly and that's what knocked it all out of wack. The mechanic also said that the transmission on the Honda was OK... and that we did not need a new transmission. Just a new C joint installed. So my first thought was... thank you Lord Jesus. Thank you that I don't have to buy a new vehicle or pay for an entirely new transmission. Then he told me they had to order a new part and that what the cost would be. Again another prayer answered.... it was an amount we could afford. It was money we had saved. Thank you Lord for answering our prayers.

So today we go pick up our van. We are now praying about the conversation we will have with the original mechanic. That it go well. That we give grace and mercy where needed and that he understand this financial scenario. Where normally I might worry about the conversation, play it out in my head... wonder what I can say to make him see how he needs to rectify the situation. I will simply pray. I will pray for Him. I will pray for his finances, I will pray for my husband who will be speaking to Him. And again I will ask my Almighty God to be with us in this situation.

This faithbuilder rocked my socks off. Thank you Lord for answering prayer. Thank you for your specific love and thank you that you are the best "listener" I know.