Grace and Car Testimony - Birthday Gift From The Lord!

This particular post is very special to me because it talks about how the Lord blessed me and my season of trusting HIM like never before. I've shared this in my Notes on Facebook, as well as giving the link to certain individuals and I also have it saved in my #Evernote, which I <3!!! This, nor any of my postings is to have the spotlight on myself, but to share the 'Light of the Lord' that's within me' to everyone else! :-) The Lord has blessed me with certain gifts & talents and I'm going to do my best to use them for HIS GLORY ALONE! THANK YOU, AND BE ENCOURAGED!!!

Last summer, on June 19, around 4 something in the morning, my car was hit while it was parked...like it had been before. I had been home for about two weeks from having surgery (another testimony). The lady that hit me HAD TO HAVE BEEN SPEEDING from the damages she did to the Jeep and on account of what happened to her car: her car flipped over two or three times and the glass shattered. She and her newborn baby were in the car. They walked away with just a few scratches and being shook up, but that was it. By the grace of God. A lot of us believe that because her baby was in the car with her, no officers thought to give her a sobriety or drug test because of what she told the police, the look of the accident doesn't add up! Supposedly, an alcoholic beverage was near the accident scene. Whether that was hers or not, we may never come to find out. Now, she didn't have any car  insurance, as neither did I. 

GRACE
4. a manifestation of favor, especially by a superior: It was only
through the dean's grace that I wasn't expelled from school. Synonyms:
forgiveness, charity, mercifulness. Antonyms: animosity, enmity,
disfavor.
5. mercy; clemency; pardon: He was saved by an act of grace from the
governor. Synonyms: lenity, leniency, reprieve. Antonyms: harshness.
EXPAND
6. favor shown in granting a delay or temporary immunity.
7. an allowance of time after a debt or bill has become payable
granted to the debtor before suit can be brought against him or her or
a penalty applied: The life insurance premium is due today, but we
have 31 days' grace before the policy lapses. Compare grace period.

BEFORE the Wisconsin Car Insurance Law went into effect around January 2010, I had already been driving without car insurance. My premiums had went up and I just got rid of it after paying it out. Now, ever since I've been driving, I've always kept insurance on my cars. This was a first for me. I knew, I knew I was taking a huge gamble in every way you could think of. It was only by the grace of God that I never hit anyone or anyone hit me those two or three years of driving without any insurance. God covered me and protected me EVERY..SINGLE..TIME I drove somewhere! I don't doubt there were plenty of times I could have been in accidents but the Lord seen fit to grace me during that season.
There are a lot things that members of the body end up doing they KNOW IS WRONG, but God may give them a grace period. That in NO WAY MEANS THAT IT'S OKAY OR ACCEPTABLE TO GOD. ~James 4:17 "Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin." All I'm saying is, OUR WALK WITH THE LORD IS AN EVERYDAY BATTLE AND STRUGGLE! NOT JUST WITH THE LITTLE THINGS, BUT WITH ALL THINGS AND ALL AREAS OF LIFE! It's about your heart, your sincerity, your humbleness... God will grace us in our lives and in our situations because He loves us THAT MUCH, BUT we should NOT take advantage of that! We never know when our grace period will run out! There are some people who have more grace than others and there are some who, depending on the calling of their life, LITERALLY CAN'T AFFORD TO TAKE THAT RISK!

With that being said, I lost my reliable transportation and "livelihood" as a couple of people put it. Now, my neighbor, bless his heart, he was urging me to get an estimate of the damages that were done to the Jeep and to get it to where the lady would have to pay for the damages somewhere down the line. He just wanted to make sure that she paid for that and I was taken care of in regards to that situation. Now, watch how I had to go to another level and TRUST GOD in a way I hadn't before IN THIS SITUATION! With my work schedule being the way it is and car shops and whatnot being closed by the time I get off, it was hard trying to find a place to get it towed to for an estimate, and how to go about getting it towed there because the car was literally no longer drivable and had to be towed on a flatbed. I needed to have money to get it towed  and looked at, and then towed back; I needed to be able to drop it off before work to get it looked at and couldn't; no mechanics were able to come out to my house and look at and etc...it just became very time-consuming and frustrating. I just kept saying, "I want this to be over. I want to get past this. I want to let this go." I said, "I'm not cursing her, but she's going to have to pay for what she's done. I just wanna move on." I allowed my spirit to get quiet and talk to the Lord and just tell Him that I'm trusting Him in this situation and believing that He's going to take care of me and work it out for me. Now, my NATURAL man was like, "Are u crazy? That's money you deserve, passing over and etc, etc." But my spirit man was calm and I FINALLY had PEACE about the situation. I was no longer stressing or worrying about it. I was FREE from it cause I surrendered it over to the Lord. ~Psalms 55:22 "Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you." Again, my spirit was cool and relaxed about it, but it was an adjustment and a HUMBLING experience for me and my flesh!

So, here we have 8 months later, and the Lord blessed me big! My early birthday gift from Him that I've had for two weeks now!!! AND YES, I HAVE INSURANCE!!! LOLOL I can laugh and make jokes about that NOW....The Lord blessed me really, really good with my insurance policy, too...STILL AT FULL COVERAGE!!!! GOD IS GRRRRRRRRRRRRRREAT! 

Only a handful of people knew EXACTLY what happened to my car...and only a smaller handful of people knew when I was about to get another one. I CAN'T THANK GOD ENOUGH FOR MY GIRL TRACI WHO ALWAYS HAS MY BACK IN THE SPIRITUAL REALM AND WHO KEPT ME UPLIFTED BEFORE THE LORD! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN I CAN EVER TELL YA. =) I THANK THE LORD FOR HER AND A COUPLE OF OTHERS THAT HE USED TO OPEN THE DOOR AND ALLOWED ME TO GET MY BLESSING WHEN I DID AND HOW I DID! THAT WAS A LOT OF TIME AND LABORING ON THEIR PART, AND I'M SO VERY GRATEFUL AND LOVE THEM DEARLY FOR THAT!

i know this was a BOOK to read, but I wanted to break everything down with the hopes of encouraging someone today! It's not to shine light on myself, but on How AWESOME the Lord is, and that ALL WE GOTTA DO IS TRUST HIM! TRUST HIM! TRUST HIM! TRUST HIM! BE BLESSED AND ENCOURAGED IN THE LORD TODAY!!!! XOXOXO

~RAVEN J