God's goodness builds my faith

With a freewill offering I will sacrifice to you;I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good. For he has delivered me from every trouble, and my eye has looked in triumph on my enemies.

Psalm 54:6-7

My daughter grew up fast. And now she has an old car and lives in another city without us around where we can help her easily. Months ago we heard that her car windows would not go down. Having just discovered a fuse controlled our local son's car windows when his did not work, we encouraged her to look into that. Not sure she did.

Fast forward to this week. I get a text after she has taken her car in to Firestone to get help raising a window that suddenly went down last week after all these months (the weather got hot and her elbow accidentally pushed the window button. ?). Now it was about to rain and she needed it fixed. (Never mind, safety!) The text message informs me that the diagnostic fee will be $40. and who knows what the repair will cost. And can she please put it on my credit for now and she can pay me back after her next paycheck.

A phone call later she's learned from us about diagnostic fees being applied to repairs and the value of getting estimates ahead of repairs. Quite expecting this young lady in danger of getting ripped off, we take a deep breath, and thank God for learning experiences. It's only money.

A few hours later I missed the text telling me the total will be $239, including diagnostic fee and will take two hours of work, when they can get around to it.

A few hours later I get a panicked call. They could not fix it, would charge her nothing, but she'd need to take the car to a nearby specialist. Only she was stuck at home and couldn't find any friends to take her back to the shop; her roomie was far away and the friend who'd been lined up to help had to go to class. And she needed to get to work early in the morning. So she'd settle for getting it after her friend got out of class and he'd take her to Home Depot where she'd purchase clear plastic and duct tape and shut out the forecasted rain herself until she could get it to the specialist.

Helpless, I prayed with her for God to provide a friend who could assist Grace in getting her car to the specialist and his ability to fix it. I didn't even pray about the cost because that was a moot point: God provides and it has to get fixed and she can't afford to think about a new car.

Soon the text comes that another friend from church has texted to say she is coming to take her to Firestone so she can get the car to the specialist who can fix her broken windows system.

And then the phone call informing me that by the time she arrived to retrieve her car the guys at Firestone, in putting the door back together, had discovered a broken wire, twisted it, and now all four windows go up and down. And they didn't charge her for the repair. Nor for the diagnosis. !?!? Grateful, she rewarded them with several Chick-fil-A gift cards at her disposal.

Her report has filled me with such thanksgiving. Not only for the provision which amazed us when we called out for help in finding transportation to the shop and the subsequent freebie, but for the clear blessing of God in the clear answer to prayer. I have prayed that He would restore the happy and confident faith of my earlier life, and as I have been claiming the truth of His goodness while submitting to His wise providence, I am learning to trust Him whatever that providence. To have such a lovely string of provisions today for this daughtie-I-can't-do-for has got my heart singing. Yes, I often pray that He will heal any undiagnosed illnesses in our bodies so that we can carry on. Yes, I pray almost daily that He will free Saeed. Yes, I'm praying that He will heal Lindsey and Laurie. Nor can I know some of the answers to those prayers. But I am continually encouraged to make them. My Father delights to give His children good gifts.

And then from Amy Carmichael on Psalm 18:32-36:

He maketh my way perfect. Perfect—not easy; high places, steep places, are not easy places, but the hinds' feet are wonderfully prepared to stand on places that would be impossible to most creatures. “He maketh my feet like hinds' feet”. Feet that can stand steadily in difficult places, feet that can walk in paths that are like a thread thrown on a precipice, feet that can spring from point to point, not afraid of suddenly having to change direction; all this—and I expect much more—is in the picture David sees and calls “hinds' feet”.

And then, lest any one of us should feel afraid of the difficult ways where the hinds go, we have this lovely word: “Thou has enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.” “Thou shalt make room enough under me for to go”. We shall never come to a place where this is not true. There will always somehow be “room for me to go”.