I remember right where I was that day in February 2014. It was the day that BASS Pro Randy Howell won the Bassmaster's Classic. It was an amazing story. On the Final day Randy was upwards of 10 places behind the leader, and no one outside a few Howell's in the family and a ton of homers at the King's Home Children's facility thought Randy had a prayer. Ironically a prayer is exactly what Randy had, and after saying it found himself fishing under a bridge he never planned on fishing. 5-7 casts later he was in position to do what no one had ever done in staging the greatest comeback in BASS Classic History!
However that is not the only awesome prayer answered that day. I had 2 speaking events that weekend, and boy I needed them. Money was tight over at Wellspoken Ministries, and I wasn't sure how many more paychecks we had left. The $19,100 salary I was drawing at the time meant I had to have $1500 a month to get paid, and it was looking slim. Due to the wear and tear on my vehicle the rule we adopted as a Ministry was if I have to drive over 6 hours we rent a car. My speaking engagements that weekend merited a rental so I dropped $300 on the rental car and set out to preach.
The first event was in a small coastal town that I knew quite well. The Church was a good sized congregation and the event had around 400 in attendance. The night went well and many people trusted Christ, but when I went to leave no check was given. I have to admit I perseverated on it for about 200 miles as I drove to my next speaking engagement. I stopped at a friend's house and stayed the night before driving the remainder of the way to the small Pentecostal Church in Georgia that I was to preach at that Sunday. As I walked into the Sanctuary it was apparent that affluence and this Church were far from each other. The white washed walls and old plate glass windows did not speak of a great deal of wealth. I got in and glanced up above the old organ, as I noticed the small sign that tells last weeks attendance totals. It read: Last week's offering $35. "Great". I bowed my head and half prayed. "God I came here, rented a car, got no money yesterday, and now I'm preaching here? I don't know how I'm going to make it".
That Sunday became a life changer for me. I preached and gave the invitation at 12:30 pm. The altar was full, and as the Pastor got up he stood and preached again. We didn't get finished until 1:30 pm! I walked to my rental car and began to put away my things. As I looked up I noticed everyone in the church was gone. Not a car in the parking lot. Not a soul in sight. I shook my head and wondered if God was telling me I needed to do something else. Then it happened. No it wasn't a voice that told me to fish under a bridge. It was an old man. He walked up from the side of the Church, looked around, scratched his head, and then walked straight up to me. He extended his hand with and envelope in it. This is his exact words were: "God told me to give this to you". He walked away. I stood there for a moment then I opened the envelope. It had 18 $100 bills in it. The cost for my salary for the month and my rental car. I sat in my car and cried. I told God that I would never doubt his providing again.
God answers prayers. All kinds of prayers. He answered Randy's prayer of faith and my prayer of not so much faith. Those are just two that I know of that day. There is no telling now many He answered that I will never know about.
He will answer yours too. Call out to Him today.
