Those of you who heard my sermon last summer will remember that my husband Steve and I have been involved in a large court case against us. Something that started off as a really small issue was totally blown out of proportion. We had to give in to the other side recently, and now face paying their costs bill, which is huge. Through all of this I have felt the ever-present hand of God on all the proceedings, supporting us all through it all, and an amazing sense of peace. Yet, just this last month - since we have known how much we stand to pay - the enemy seems to have made things worse, just to test my faith further.

In the last month, so many things have broken in our house: the dishwasher, the computer printer, the fan in the bathroom, the pump on the fishpond. Each time I have said, in faith, ‘Never mind, we will cope without it’ (although I am concerned about the goldfish’s health!). I’ve prayed, ‘Lord, I know you will provide.’ With the cost of the court case we can’t afford to replace these things. We can’t afford any luxuries; no family holiday this year.

It all came to a head yesterday. My youngest daughter has decided she needs to keep fit and has challenged herself to go for a bike ride each night after school. About 20 minutes after she had set off yesterday, her face appeared at the kitchen window, sobbing. I ran out to see what had happened. She had been distracted by a small child in the road in front of her, and she’d hit a neighbour’s parked car and fallen off her bike, scraping her hands, knees and elbows badly. The worst of it was that in hitting the car she had quite badly damaged that too!

After cleaning her up we went and put a note on the car explaining what had happened and leaving our contact details. I prayed all night that the car would be ‘healed’ as we certainly can’t afford to repair it. Bless her - all she wanted to do was lose a bit of weight, because she is being taunted at school for her size.

‘Lord,’ I cried, ‘How much more? What’s going on here? How many times can I ask you for help? “

On relating this story this morning to a friend I still couldn’t get my head around how God would want to bail me out of yet another financial mess. How many times can I ask for his help? Am I using him as a cop-out clause to convince myself it will be alright? Still, through these thoughts I heard the Holy Spirit say, ‘Sally - it’s going to be alright. Trust me.’

Just after Toddler Group had finished this morning, Steve called me with some exciting news. He had entered one of my photos into a photographic competition, and he’d just had a phone call to say we won! The prize is a £500 holiday voucher to be spent on some holiday cottages in Yorkshire. Fantastic news!

When I got home from work, I picked up the post and opened a letter with a cheque in it. I had sold three old mobile phones on an internet site - they had told us that we would get £40 for them, which was better than nothing. I was astounded to find this cheque which had arrived so quickly - and it was for £80.

As I looked at it I shouted, ‘Thank you Jesus!’ at the top of my voice.
It wasn’t that our financial problems were solved by a holiday and an £80 cheque; it was just that God had answered my questions and doubts of that very morning with these two unexpected gifts. I began to sing: ‘You give and take away, you give and take away.. BUT my heart chooses to say, Lord blessed by thy name!’

And I heard him say to me, ‘Don’t ever stop asking me. You can ask me time and time again, my precious daughter!’