A Fun Testimony from Mexico
One Sunday when visiting a strange church. I heard a wonderful testimony. The church’s youth group had just returned from Mexico. The team traveled in three vans and had a tight schedule to keep, because they were ministering in different areas of the country. One van carried vital musical equipment. Unfortunately, the driver accidentally locked his keys inside that van. No one could get it open. At that point, the youth leader and other adults started to panic. No one knew how to find a locksmith in Mexico. But they couldn’t leave the van behind, because it would be impossible to do the show without the sound equipment.
Just as the leaders’ anxiety had reached a nice, simmering boil, one of the teenagers spoke up.
“Maybe we should pray and ask for God’s help.”
Duh…
Slipping into Problem-Solving Mode
I have to say, my sympathy is with the adults. Because I’m a problem-solver too. Things go wrong and my anxiety spikes. Immediately, my brain revs up as I try to fix things.
But sometimes I can’t.
Often it takes me a long time to acknowledge that fact. When another Christian says, “Why don’t we pray about it?” It unjams my brain, causing me to re-focus on God’s ability, instead of my own.
At that point I imagine the adults shrugged and said, “Might as well—nothing else has worked.” So the whole group prayed. As the prayer ended, a Mexican pastor and his brother drove up and the team explained their problem.
Standing there listening was the answer to their prayer.
God’s Grinning Answer
After hearing what had happened, the pastor’s brother strolled over to the locked van. Within a minute or two, he had it open again. Excited, the Americans crowded around him, asking “How did you manage to open the van so easily?”
Smiling, the pastor’s brother explained, “Before I came to Christ, I used to be a car thief.”
What an unforgettable divine answer to some believing teenagers’ prayers.
An Old Testament Example
When the people rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, each family, craftsman. government official or priest worked on the section of wall in front of them. Nehemiah brought wooden timbers from Persia to repair the gates. But the stone wall protecting Jerusalem was rebuilt using the rubble the Babylonian army had left, when they tore the wall down years before.
