Back in 2019, I decided to pray to God for a car. The motivation behind my prayer was a lesson in faith I had learned at that time.
I’m sure you have heard sermons that are in the line of ‘Faith moves mountains’. I had listened to a number of those sermons and I was pumped up to ‘ask for anything in my name’.
I said to myself, “God can do mighty things but I will only ask for a car.”
At that time, I had just turned 21 years old and I didn’t even have a driver’s license. “I don’t need to have a driver’s license to pray for a car, God will give me a car and then I’ll get my driver’s license”, I convinced myself.
My Prayer Plan
I’m a meticulous planner even when it comes to praying. Before I ask God for something in prayer, I make sure I have a bulletproof request.
From experience, I know that God refuses to answer prayers when they are not well thought out. If your request will make you worse, why should God grant it when you ask for it?
Sometimes the requests we make are only good in the short term but God understands that they will cause us pain in the long run. As a result, He chooses not to grant us what we asked.
“If I ask for a car, what are some of the objections God may have towards my request?” I asked myself.
God may say “This young man wants a car to use it for his own pleasures”. I thought. If that is the case, I will say I want a car to use it to go to church and evangelism missions.
At that time, I was involved in many church activities and I went for many evangelism missions.
If God says “This young man doesn’t even have a driver’s license, why does he want a car?” I would say it is a sign of faith that I was asking for a car even when I didn’t have a driver’s license.
I wanted to get over every objection possible so that when I eventually made the prayer, I would be guaranteed to get my car.
In the sermons I had listened to, they had said that our prayers should be specific. It is actually true that specific prayers are easier to believe than general prayers.
Instead of just praying for a car, I decided to choose a specific model so that when God answers my prayer, I will have no doubt.
I settled on a Volkswagen Golf GTI; it was a small car, had good performance and was a good first car choice.
I did further research on it; how much it costs, its fuel consumption, its engine size etc so that I could make a very elaborate prayer to God.
From the faith sermons I had listened to, they had mentioned that you need to visualize the answer you want. Because I had settled on asking God for a Volkswagen Golf GTI, it was easy to visualize it.
After an extensive preparation, I felt I was ready to make my request to God.
Praying for a Volkswagen Golf GTI
At that time, I had learned that when it comes to making requests to God, you need to start with praising God.
In the Bible, when people went to their kings to make requests they would start by saying “Long live the king!” I figured out that because God is also a king, it would make sense for me to start by praising Him so that I give myself a good chance of getting my request granted.
I began praying in the late afternoon hours. My target was to warm up in prayer so that I make my request in the early evening hours and end the session with thanksgiving.
Everything went smoothly. I spoke in tongues for over half an hour to warm myself up then I made my request in understanding.
I was very direct with my prayer. “Lord, I have desired to own a Volkswagen Golf GTI. Grant it to me that I may use it to serve you” That’s the kind of directness I applied to my prayer.
After making my request, I affirmed my faith in God with statements like “You are God, the maker of the heavens and the earth. I know that it is not hard for you to provide a car for your child when he asks for it”.
I concluded the session with praising and thanking God. All that while, I had images of Volkswagen Golfs in my head; I had scrolled through many images of Volkswagen Golfs prior to starting my prayer.
Inwardly, I felt satisfied with the request I had made. I had specified all I wanted to specify including the day I wanted God to give me the car; on my birthday. Talk of being precise!
The Answer to my Prayer
When I was making my request, I specified the day I wanted to receive my GTI so that it would be easy for me to tell if God had answered me or not.
When I prayed, my birthday was three months away. I was expecting my Volkswagen any time before or on my birthday.
Days passed with no sign of any Volkswagen. The only response I received from God after praying was silence. I felt a bit foolish for the request I made but I convinced myself that I had done nothing wrong.
Eventually, my birthday came and went with no word from God and no Volkswagen. Ouch!
Despite not getting my Volkswagen beyond the period I had specified, I wasn’t sad. I knew there was a reason why God had not granted my wish even though I had done everything I could to get God to answer me.
The silence from God on the issue prompted me to seek answers. I wanted to know what I had done wrong and what I needed to improve to get my request answered.
I went into a period of research and digging through scriptures to understand how faith works and why sometimes it feels like it doesn’t work.
Eventually, I uncovered some truths that helped me understand what had happened. In simple terms, God told me “it is a process”.
Getting a car is more like the rising of the sun than a lighting strike. The sun rises gradually until it blazes hot as opposed to lightning that strikes once.
When I prayed for a Volkswagen, I wanted God to give it to me the same way lightning strikes but God chose to let me have it the same way the sun rises.
I have not gotten my Volkswagen at the writing of this article but I have understanding and assurance that I’ll have more than just a Volkswagen.
After my experience praying for a car, I learned that God desires growth. If you cooperate with God to work on growth, you will have all you desire and much more.
Until next time…Peace!