In ___ We Trust?

About a week ago I went to the Men's Prayer Breakfast at my church (Calvary Chapel). The teaching came from 2 Chronicles 14-16, focusing on the kingship of Asa. It's so cool how Asa started out beautifully as a king, diligently leading Judah in the ways of the Lord; not only that, but he relied on God to deliver the people from overwhelming odds (2 Chron. 14:2-12)! Surely someone as faithful as Asa would finish strong in his life by continuing to honor the Lord, right? Then comes chapter 16, where we see Asa and the kingdom in the same exact situation as that from chapter 14; however, this time Asa doesn't call out to the Lord. Instead, he takes funds from the Lord's temple to hire the services of a neighboring king, who happens to be an enemy of the Israelites (2 Chron. 16:1-3). He places his trust in his own ability to take care of the need.

Needless to say, this message brought with it a serious exhortation!!! Lol! Still, applying this message was harder than normal, for some reason. Being a full-time student with no opportunity for work, the finances are pretty tight. So you can imagine my dismay when my brake light came on in my car...4 weeks ago... I avoided taking my car in because I knew I didn't have the money to pay for it, and because I knew that the mechanics would find more wrong with my car (I have a pretty old model).

Anxiety was a beast at trying to give me gray hairs before my time! I prayed and prayed, but couldn't find peace in the situation. Looking back, it's probably because I was still holding on to the situation and not fully releasing it to the Lord (...that may have had something to do with it...lol). Let's check out the epilogue, shall we?

I spoke to my mom and step-dad about the situation and my step-dad said he'd pay for the work on my car! "Wonderful!" I thought. "God is such a provider." I had no clue that He wasn't finished, yet. When I arrived at the auto shop, I spoke to the mechanic, whom I've come to know through repeated visits (as I said, my car is old...). He informed me that doing the maintenance on my brakes, pads, rotors, etc. would cost $400 total. Not only that, but as I suspected, my car needed additional work (new throttle body, gasket, etc.). I was prepared to just drive my car until the wheels fell off, as opposed to actually paying for that work...but the mechanic cut me a deal! He said he'd do ALL of the work for $500! The throttle body work alone would have cost $150, not to mention the other needed work, which would have pushed the total to over $700; so you can imagine my joy at this deal! I spoke to my step-dad, who confirmed that he'd pay the $500. It goes without saying, but I was quite pumped! Lol!

Then they said that there was an issue: since my car is so old, there are no new replacement throttle bodies or gaskets. But here comes God being a provider, again, because they found another throttle body in a junk yard nearby. Not only that, but they called around and found a gasket...in Washington State (quite far since I'm on the East Coast)!!! Lol! There's no amount of luck that could accomplish this; it's nothing short of the Lord's favor! Talk about going above and beyond all I could ever think or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21)!!!

Now I'm at the point where the Lord has provided for me and I'm excited about it...but man I wish I had relied on Him a lot more BEFORE he provided!!! [sigh] I guess I'll just have to remember this situation for next time. Ah...building moments...praise God for them...