God’s Ways Are Not Our Ways

A number of years ago I started praying for a mini van. We were a young family of four, going on field trips and I needed a mini van to cart us around in. We didn’t have the money for it, but I resorted myself to simply praying for it.

I started making this a regular prayer, for a mini van. Flash forward to three months later. I took the kids to a museum in the morning. My son was three at the time, and we just got home, in time for him to take a small nap. Then I needed to drive to my husband’s work and bring him some clothes. An hour and twenty minutes later, I came out to the parking lot where my car is parked. It wasn’t there. I began to second guess myself. Didn’t I park in this spot, right in front of the garage? Just to be sure, I walked towards the street to see if I parked there. Maybe I needed the nap, and was too tired to remember. Nope. My car wasn’t there either. I looked all around. My car was no where to be seen.

It began to slowly dawn on me. “I think my car has been stolen.” I stood outside where my car should have been parked, realizing that in fact, my car was stolen. I went back into the house to call the police. I called 911 and reported my car stolen. A few minutes later, a policewoman came to my house to take a report. After she left, I went back into my house to call my insurance company.

As time passed, I began to wonder why in the world my car was stolen. This wasn’t exactly what I had been praying for. I’d been praying for a mini van. I needed a car. But now, the one good car, or at least the one good car we thought was the good car, was stolen. I was confused on the matter. How is it, I pray for a mini van and now one of our cars is stolen?

God says His ways are not our ways. That was certainly true in this scenario. I kept wondering, why was our car stolen? I’d been praying for a mini van, but now we were down to one car. It didn’t make sense.

But the timing was good. If we had to get a car stolen, this was a good time to do it. My husband was just a few days away from his summer vacation. We wouldn’t need two cars then. We also planned to go to Alaska for three weeks, so we really didn’t need a car then. I was still confused, though.

God is always working in a believer’s life. He always hears our prayers. He always answers us. I couldn’t see how God was working. But I knew He had my best interests at heart.

For the whole summer, we researched cars, and found a mini van we liked. The car that was stolen, gave us a small amount of money, from our insurance. We were able to use that money as a down payment for the new mini van.

It all worked out perfectly. You see, I was thinking we would get rid of the car that didn’t get stolen. But we would not have gotten any money for it. The car that got stolen, was actually a lemon. It was plagued with problems that cost us a lot of money to fix. God took care of it all. We got rid of the lemon car. We had a small amount of money for it, to make a down payment. The timing worked out well for our schedule. Looking back I can see God’s hand in all of it.

So often God’s promises don’t seem to match our reality. When I started praying for the mini van, I didn’t expect to get our car stolen. But it all worked out better than I could have even thought of.

A believer must trust that God has heard their prayers, because He has. A believer must believe that God has their best interests at heart, because He does. If you know the Lord and are going through something. Just wait. Looking back you will see God’s fingerprints all over your life.