Micah 6:8 – He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (ESV)

Two years ago, at age 66, I officially retired, and I decided that it was time to buy a newer car. On the main dealer's forecourt, I found one, three years old, with 15,000 miles on it and four-wheel drive — exactly what we needed for off-road towing traction.

Since I was only casually looking, and, foolishly, not expecting God to be that interested in my purchase of a car, I wondered whether this was too much of a coincidence, or whether God was in it. However, I showed the car to my youngest daughter Sophia and my wife Caroline. When questioned, my daughter, then 11, said that she liked the car and that maybe it was from God, so I thought that this was perhaps something to consider. But we required £2,000 more in deposit to reduce the monthly repayments to what we could afford.

When my mother-in-law Dora said that she felt prompted by God to donate £2,000 to us without Caroline's or my telling her the situation, I realized that this was not a whim, and that I needed to have the trust that God was in this.

The question that bugged me about buying then was: Why the rush now? I was just casually looking. In retrospect, if we had delayed for the two months that I had intended to, we would not have been able to purchase the car and handle the repayments! Second-hand car prices shot up 20-30 percent in the United Kingdom just after we bought ours, because there was a shortage of new cars.

It is a keyless-entry car. As long as I have the key fob on me, the car will open and start. Amazingly, it refuses to be locked if I have left the key fob in the car. This has saved me more than once from being locked out when in a hurry as I become more forgetful.

Now, two years on, driving longer distances has become a necessity as Dora is no longer able to travel safely on the trains, due to the ongoing protracted train strikes, train changes, and concomitant cancelled trains. It seems that in this single purchase, God prepared me in advance to be able to provide transportation for Dora and my family.

God has also reminded me of His continuous presence with us today. He wants us to take Him with us as go into the world, even when buying a car! Let us not prejudge what we expect to hear from Jesus as we wait and walk with Him in our decisions.

Prayer: Lord, thank You for Your patience and timeliness. Thank You for the intimacy that includes love and guidance for our paths, in Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

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About the author:

Rod Marshall <roderickhenrymarshall@gmail.com>
Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
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