Little Blue Car

Have you ever had something in your daily life that just bothers you? An item in your house, a decoration, a set of blinds, that hand-me-down table that your great aunt checks for every time she visits. Maybe a sweater, bathroom sink, kitchen floor, or front walkway. The wrong color, the wrong material, not your style, and not your choice. We have all been there.

Mine used to be our little blue car.

The car was perfectly fine. The car is still perfectly fine. It isn’t too old or too flashy. It’s fuel-efficient and practical, and still in great shape. It’s comfortable and cute. I had one problem with it and one problem only. I didn’t pick it. I refuse to recount to you the fights that happened between my husband and me over that vehicle but be sure that there were plenty.

There were loud fights and the silent treatment. There were tears and shouts, passive-aggressive silliness, slammed doors, rolled eyes, and nasty words behind each other’s backs (at least on my part), and to top it all off, one day a family of mice moved into that little blue car via one of the vents in the AC and terrorized the children and me. My husband was unshaken by this development.

Every time I rode in this car or had to drive it my irritation and anger would well up. I went through every argument or terse word. I would complain and not be able to enjoy one moment as I ran errands or drove to a dinner with a friend. It consumed me and left me bitter.

Then came the horrifying news. I would need to drive that little blue car full-time. It was now my car. We needed a truck for our property maintenance and the finances did not allow us to buy 2 new vehicles. I knew it was the responsible thing to do, I just shuddered at the thought of driving that car. Every day. My pride was stirred up and all my thoughts returned to those fights, slammed doors, and emotional wounds.

My thoughts also returned to the mice.

I went through my options. I could pray for a new car to be dropped into my lap. I could pray that God would ease my concern about finances and let us take out a loan we shouldn’t. God provides, right? I could pray that somehow the emergency brake would give out while parked on a steep hill and that the car would plummet to its death (without anyone in it, of course) and I could pick out something new with the insurance money. I could pray that the pain of driving that car would somehow cure me of my pride and I would become a kind and loving woman who didn’t grumble because God had beat grumbling out of me.

I could ask for anything and say the words “in Jesus’s name” afterward, but what kind of request was in line with Jesus? God gave me a new idea. I could pray that He changed the way I felt about the car. I could pray that He changed my heart and that I was grateful for it.

¹³ And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

John 14:13-14

So that’s what I prayed! I prayed that God would change me, not the car. Next, I had to pray that God would change my kids’ hearts too because sadly I had convinced them that that car was something to be scorned. Oops! Ungrateful children were a byproduct of my lack of gratitude and a constant reminder.

So, every time we got in, we thanked God for the car. We listed the good things about it and asked that we be delivered from the mice. We thanked Him that it was paid off and that it saved us money on gas. It had a great sound system, and I could park crooked, which is something I’m known for, and still not inconvenience anyone.

It didn’t take long for things to change. I started to enjoy sliding into the car and zipping around corners. Running errands to the sound of worship music and some choice oldies became a pleasure. I could finally see it for what it was: a blessing. I apologized to my husband and told him that I liked the car, and he looked at me like the impossible had happened, because it had. God had answered my prayer and changed my heart.

Then came the real question. Why had that prayer been answered so quickly and many of my other prayers lay flat and lifeless? If the Bible says God will answer our prayers, why did He answer that one in the way I asked and not some of the others?

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? ² You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. ³ When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

James 4:1-3

Uh-oh. My motivations matter, but how do I change my motives, and what do I change them to? The fights over the car came from worldly desires for control and pride, and a covetous attitude on my part. I wanted something someone else had instead of what God had given me. I wanted a little SUV. When I pray for things to spend on my pleasure or desires God doesn’t need to answer them. He’s too good to answer those just like we are too good to give a petulant child every piece of candy that they want.

He will bless us like crazy no matter what, we don’t have to oversee what the blessings look like. We pray that He will provide. We pray the way He tells us to pray about our needs, finances, ministries, hopes, families, and friends, but we can’t trust that we know what the best thing for us is at that moment. We just trust that God knows more, cares more, and is the giver of every good gift (James 1:16-17). We can pray that He searches our motivations and changes them.

Instead of asking Him to get me out of things, I can ask Him for joy in the things I am dreading. Instead of asking Him for the things that I want, I can ask Him to bless me in the way He sees fit. Instead of demanding more blessings or answered prayer, I ask for His presence and His righteousness. I don’t get this right every time, but I do get it right more often.

God answered my prayer so quickly and I will never forget it. He’s so good that I can’t help getting a little better every time I am with Him. He will move mountains for us but sometimes we should just ask for joy to climb the mountain. The joy of the Lord is our strength, right? Staying close and learning to hear His voice will tell us what to ask for.

Maybe it’s not something in your house. Maybe it’s something at church. Maybe it’s something at work or in a friend’s life. The worship music, bulletin, leadership, or that paint color the deacons picked. Your boss, your coworker, that dang monitor that makes you crazy. Your friend making decisions you never would. There are many things that we can ask for, but God is more concerned with our hearts than our comforts.

If you want to see your prayers answered there is only one thing I can recommend. Start praying for the things that only God can do inside of you. You will see your prayers answered. God is always happy to straighten Whitney out and I bet He will do the same for you.

By the way, God did deliver us from the mice. He is faithful!

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?

²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Matthew 6:25-34

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