Diane Williams - Angels in Action - Stories to Inspire

Just before ending our call, Joan assured me again that she would pray for Bill and his family in their dark hour. Then she told me to get started with my new prayer knowledge. I hung up after promising her that I would and thanking her sincerely for her help.

I walked out to the patio with my Bible, incense, and a candle. I set up my prayer shrine and immediately began putting the process into effect. I felt like Nehemiah, coming to the Lord after a long hiatus from my Christian disciplines. The prophet prayed, “Let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you” (Nehemiah 1:6).

I wasn’t sure how to start this conversation with God, so I decided just to be honest about my troubles. “Lord,” I prayed, “Although I’ve attended church for many years, I have to admit, I haven’t developed a relationship with you. I just sit in the pew, sometimes listening and other times napping. I feel a bit guilty coming to you, not knowing you, yet expecting you to favorably respond to my needs, but you are the only one I can turn to. Please help me draw closer to you. I need your help now.”

Tears began to flow as the words poured from my mouth, releasing the guilt from my heart. As I prayed, the Lord increased my boldness. I was transformed through prayer, just as Nehemiah had been. Nehemiah 1:11 tells us, “Lord, let your ears be attentive to the prayer of your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name.” I thought of another verse—one that seemed especially pertinent under the circumstances: “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Luke 11:9).

I looked it up in my Bible and read that verse over and over. Feeling desperate, I asked, begged, and pleaded with God to find me a job. I had to make at least $300 to pay my rent by Monday. I had exactly five days.

The sudden ringing of the phone startled me. It was the secretary from a temporary agency. She gave me an assignment that would earn me a hundred dollars before the end of the week. I was delighted and amazed at the promptness of God’s response. After hanging up the phone I said a quick prayer, “Thank you, Lord, for the hundred dollars. I need another assignment for two hundred more.” Deciding to give God a helping hand, I took out a stack of business cards from various agencies that might have work for me to do. One by one, I phoned them all, asking if there were any positions open, but they all had the same answer—there was nothing available.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do next. In order to keep moving more than anything else, I decided to run a few errands. My first stop was the supermarket where I proceeded to the produce aisle and grabbed a few bunches of bananas, some grapes, and a bag of apples. While I was waiting in line, a young lady walked up behind me.

“You seem to be in a good mood,” she said.

I almost laughed out loud. “Far from it,” I said. “But I’m making the best of it.”

She held out her hand. “I’m Edna,” she said.

I shook it. “I’m Diane. It’s nice to meet you.”

We continued to chat as we moved through the checkout line, out the front door, and into the parking lot.

“Well, it’s been nice talking with you, Diane,” Edna said. “I’ve got to walk down a couple of blocks to the bus stop.”

“You don’t have a car?” I asked. “Let me give you a lift home.”

“I’d hate to be a bother,” Edna said.

“Don’t be silly,” I replied. “I’d be delighted.”

Thanking me, she put her bag of groceries into the backseat and slid into the passenger seat. Just as I started to pull out of the supermarket parking lot, I noticed that the gas gauge was pointing perilously close to empty.

“Oops,” I said. “I’d better stop and get some gas or neither one of us is going to get home anytime soon.”

Edna laughed and said, “Well, I can show you where all the bus stops are.”

Luckily, within a few blocks I spotted the gas station. I unfastened my seat belt and was getting out of the car when Edna touched my arm. “Take this money and add it to the gas bill,” she said.

“Oh, please,” I said. “There is absolutely no reason for you to do that, but thank you anyway.”

“Stop being proud and take the money,” she gently insisted.

We looked at each other for a long moment and then we both laughed. I hadn’t told her about my financial problems, but somehow she seemed to sense them.

“All right then,” I said. “Thank you very, very much.”

I pumped just enough gas to get me through the next couple of days and then strolled over to the cashier. There I unrolled the money Edna had given me. I stared at it in shock. In my hand I held a five-dollar bill—and a hundred-dollar bill!

I scurried back to the car and held the hundred-dollar bill out to Edna. “You obviously gave me the wrong bill,” I said.

She smiled and said, “No, I didn’t. God told me to give it to you, so keep it.”

I was awestruck into silence, and didn’t question her anymore. The entire trip to Edna’s house, we talked about God. Before we parted, we exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep in touch. Driving away, I felt as if I had been visited by an angel.

I praised and thanked the Lord all the way home. I was reminded of Daniel when he praised the Lord for answered prayer saying, “I thank and praise you, O God of my ancestors: You have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king” (Daniel 2:23). I praised the Lord in this instance, but not just for His glorious attributes. I praised Him not just because He is Lord and deserving of all honor, but I praised Him that day for answering my prayer. I was gracious. Psalm 9:11 commands us to “Sing praises of the Lord, enthroned in Zion; proclaim among the nations what He has done.” I was praising the Lord for what He had provided.

When I entered my apartment, my roommate, Shari, was sitting in the living room watching television. She muted the TV.

“Well, what are you so happy about?” she asked.

“You won’t believe it,” I said and eagerly told her about my new friend Edna.

Shari’s eyes opened wide and her mouth dropped open. “Girl,” she said, “stop lying.”

I took the bill out of my purse and showed it to her. She examined the bill closely.

“This is real,” she said. “Wait a minute, is that really the way it happened?

I nodded, grinning.

Shari leapt off the couch and ran toward her bedroom.

“Where are you going?” I called out.

She said, “I’ve got to get my car keys and my purse and get over to Ranch Market to see if God told somebody to give me a hundred dollars.”

Nearly all day Thursday, I was on my knees praying, petitioning God to let one of the agencies call to give me work, but the phone didn’t ring. By Friday morning, I was rationalizing and making promises to God. “If you help me this time, I promise I will stop worrying.”

I called Joan. “God didn’t answer my prayer and I did exactly what you told me to do,” I said. “I guess the process only works for you or other believers. God doesn’t like me, a lukewarm believer.”

Joan said, “God is hiding from you.”

I said, “Why in the world would He do that?”

“He hides so you may seek Him,” Joan said. “The more you seek God, the closer you draw to Him. Diane, God shows His face through scripture. You must approach each scripture full-heartedly.”