Johnhwilburn.com

In September I wrote a post about the Lord opening the door for me to purchase a pastor’s van for the use of our church (you can read it here). With Gods help I drove that van back to Barrouallie, and parked it in front of the church.

That drive reminded me of something.

God will give you your dreams…..

but many times they come slowly.

For a number of years (since 2018) I knew the Lord wanted the church to have a van. This would allow me to bring those from other areas to services, and also bring in young people. My car though an amazing blessing just wasn’t big enough to do this.

for over five-years I prayed for a van, and worked towards raising funds, but there was very little growth. There were many reasons for this but in the end, God just didn’t open the door.

The truth is I got kind of frustrated and felt as if the Lord would never provide a van. God used a conversation between myself and my brother in July to open the door for that dream to finally be realized.

We were driving through Kingstown talking about my needs and he asked about my purchasing a van. He asked about selling my current vehicle and then using that money to begin buying a van. My response is “no way am I selling the car.” Partly because having the car for daily use is easier (and cheaper) to maintain. But also because I honestly loved the car!

The Lord soon began to convict my heart about this, and I decided to go all in, selling the car so that a van could be purchased.

A week later I was driving a young man into town who recently became pastor of a Church. He borrows my car from time to time for ministry purposes, and I told him about my desire to sell it. The plan was to do so sometime next year.

Then my phone rang.

A week later a pastor called and asked if I would possibly be interested in purchasing his van! Where he lives is a steep elevation so the van will scrape the ground when entering his driveway. He has already purchased another vehicle that will be better for his needs. And discussing who to sell the van to, he thought of me.

of course, I said yes!!!

Scripture does not promise us God will provide everything we want. But He will provide what is needed to do His work. I would much rather the Lord provided the van sooner, but am so thankful he didn’t. Instead God gave it to me in His time, and in His beautiful way.

The old saying is God usually doesn’t say “no” but “wait.” The waiting is incredibly frustrating I know! But those who patiently wait for Gods timing will find its definitely worth it.