Linda's Journal: God's AMAZING Provision!

I had mentioned in another blog posting about "Being held by God" when our car was overheating but I hadn't followed up with what God has done since then.  One of the cool things about completely relying on God is that we get to watch Him do some pretty amazing things!  Lately we haven't had very many "surprises" financially so things have been pretty "status quo" as far as our provision has been concerned. But, this last month we have been hit by several surprises!... But, as I watch God work, I am seeing more and more that He is never "surprised" by anything!  We may be surprised but He isn't and has already made provision for us! We have been doing this for a couple years now but I am continually amazed at how big, and awesome God is :).

So, back to the car. I had called our friend Bryan (who is a mechanic) the day the car was overheating but, unknown to me, he was vacationing at the beach that week and wasn't available...  which is why God had made provision for us to get Cecelia's car (Big Blue) that day for as long as we needed it.  When Bryan got back in town, Tom was able to drive the car to Bryan's shop and he fixed it for us... FREE of charge! We were not expecting that! We even had people tell us that they would pay for the repairs but he would not take anything. Lord, I pray that you bless this man 100 fold for his wonderful generosity!

Next, we usually get a certain amount once a month from a friend who feels led to support our ministry which we use for our car insurance and our cell phone bill. We receive it anywhere between the 9th and the 15th of the month because the bills are due at that time. We usually don't even think about it because it is always there when we need it. Well, we got a surprise gift from someone, very unexpectedly, for the very same amount so we assumed it was for the repairs of the car... since that was still going on when we received the money.  But, what happened was, the person who normally gives, forgot for some reason this month to do the transfer! So, God had provided the same amount from another source to cover us so we could pay those bills on time! God was not surprised! He knew before we did that we were not going to receive the normal donation in time so He provided it another way :)

The next blessing occurred when we got the cell phone bill this month! Apparently I used my phone much more than normal and went WAY over my minutes so the phone bill was double what it usually is! Ooops. But again, God was not surprised and laid on some ones heart to give us the amount that we were over the normal bill, unexpectedly... So, needless to say, I am watching my minutes much closer now!  :)

Next, we are driving home from dropping our grand daughter Tuesday night when we suddenly heard our tire making a noise like it just went flat. Tom pulled over pretty quickly so we could check it out but when I got out of the car and looked, the tire wasn't flat at all!  But, when I took a closer look at the tire I saw that we had picked up a BOLT and the head was sticking out far enough that it made the noise that we heard...  OK!  Well, we made it home and the bolt actually stayed in the tire and kept the air from coming out but for how long we did not know. So, Tom and I were looking at our finances and trying to work out a way that we could get a new tire with what we knew was coming in that week. I worked for Marteen on Wed. and she gave me $50 so we set that aside. Then on Thursday night, my ladies group met and one of the ladies handed me some cash...  She had never given me anything during the couple years I had known her so this was a surprise to me! I asked her what it was for and as she was walking away, she just threw her hands up and said "I don't know!" She was just being obedient to what God was telling her to do. At that time I just stuck it in my pocket because other ladies were coming in but took it out later and counted it... she gave me $100 dollars!! With what Marteen gave us and that, that was our tire money!!! God, once again, you knew what we needed and provided it in a way that only You could make happen.

So, that last thing I wanted to mention was that when I was vacuuming out Big Blue before we returned it to Cecelia, I sucked up something that that vacuum did not like...  I started smelling something burning so I shut it off.  We could not figure out what the problem was until Tom took it apart.  Fortunately, we were able to repair it ourselves for only $20 for a replacement part! That may sound silly but when you get attached to a Kirby, nothing else can do the job so we were very happy that the "fix" was simple, easy and inexpensive :)

These are just a few of the many ways that God blesses us by meeting our needs when we need it and even when we don't know we need it! God is not surprised by anything and He always comes through for us at just the right time :)