Several years ago I preached a sermon at one of my former pastorates. After the sermon, the pastor opened the floor for testimonies. A young lady began to testify. She told about how she had worked on her car and couldn’t repair it. Finally, after reaching a point of frustration, she prayed for God to heal her car – and He did. Later, her brother brought his car to her. Same scenario. She worked on it, couldn’t repair it, reached a point of frustration, prayed for God to heal it, and He did! Her whole point was that nothing is too insignificant to pray about.
As I sat there in the pew I began to think, “Well that’s nice that her car is fixed, but it was probably just a coincidence. However, if she wants to believe God heals inanimate objects, who am I to burst her bubble or rain on her parade?” Now, don’t you sit there reading this article feeling all pious – some of y’all don’t believe it either!
Now fast forward to the next day. My wife and I own a small cabin located on a lake in Meriwether County. Our children had taken turns living there. But now it was vacant and she and I were planning to fix it up and start spending some time there. This is where the story starts to get interesting.
The grass had gotten about knee-high and Marianne wanted me to bush hog the yard. As I was bush hogging I started up a terrace, hung the bush hog, and stalled the motor. Trying to disengage the bush hog, I tugged on the gearshift lever and started rocking backward and forward in the seat. I wanted the motor to turn just enough to relieve the tension. The motor turned about an eight of a turn. I won’t even call it a backfire. It kind of did a real weak burp and a puff of smoke came out the breather pipe. I kept tugging and rocking. Suddenly, I noticed smoke was still coming out from under the cowl panel. A spark from the backfire had ignited some dried leaves on top of the exhaust manifold directly beneath the gas tank.
I didn’t think this was a big deal, so I jumped down from the tractor and tried to blow out the fire. That only made it worse. Suddenly, discretion became the better part of valor. I thought to myself, “Aaron, this is stupid. Get out of here. This thing’s about to blow and when it does, it will take you with it!”
As I turned to run, I fell just as flat on my back as you can fall. I lay there squirming, kicking, and trying to get up, thinking all along, “Oh my Lord, I’m gonna die laying on the ground kicking and squirming like a woman in a scary movie!” Finally, I regained my footing and very expeditiously departed the scene.
From a safe distance, I turned and watched my tractor. Two and three-inch flames were licking the bottom of the gas tank. Guess what I did? You got it! I started praying for an inanimate object. Unashamedly, I prayed, “Lord, please don’t let my tractor blow up or burn up!” You know what? He heard and answered my prayer. When the leaves finished burning, the fire went out, and my tractor was intact and unharmed.
I immediately thanked the Lord, put the tractor under the shed, and went home! And that’s the truth if I ever told it!
Never again will I question anybody who tells me God hears their prayer when they pray for inanimate objects! You see, I prayed for my tractor, and God healed it.
If God cares for inanimate objects, how much more does He care for you and me?
Brother Aaron