A few years ago, I jumped into my car early one morning looking forward to another busy day but when I tried to start my car, I didn’t hear the usual sound of my car starting. Instead, what I heard was the eerie silence that only comes from a nearly dead battery. Unlike the past when I would have when I would have let something like that completely frustrate me, I simply said “Not today devil. I got things to do.” I prayed and a few seconds later I turned the ignition key again. This time the car started right up.
As I was driving, I was glad that the car started but I knew I had a choice to make: take my chances and walk in great faith that God would watch over me and my car or just be wise and take my car to the mechanic. For most, the logical answer would be to take my car to the garage so they could fix it. Honestly, I was distracted by my desire to save time and money. However, what brought me back to reality was the vision of me being stranded somewhere with the broken-down car late at night. Wisdom won out and two hours and nearly 300 dollars later my car was running like new.
On the one hand, I was disappointed because that was well above what I thought I could afford. However, as I wrote out the check, I was happy that I had the money but quite disappointed that I had to give it to a mechanic and not pay off a bill that I planned. Even more so, I was confident that I’d been wise to invest in my car. Ephesians 5:15-16 reminds us to “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.” I left the mechanic thinking about how I was going to get the money back when a strategy that someone once shared with me about unplanned expenses came to mind.
I quickly prayed that the entire amount plus interest would be returned to me in seven days. Three days later, I had a check in my hand that returned the original amount back into my account plus a little extra. It’s funny that I went to the mechanic expecting only to have the battery replaced but ended up getting a much-needed oil and filter change and tune up.
My visit to the mechanic reminded me of how we sometimes go to God asking for one thing when it’s really another thing that he wants to bless us with. We go to him asking for healing from an illness when he really wants to heal us from the sickness of unforgiveness. Much like I dreaded paying the cost of the repairs, we dread having to do the work of getting our lives in godly order, but we realize in the end that in order for God to take us further into our destiny we must make the necessary repairs (repent) and keep up maintenance (stay in fellowship with him).