One bright autumn morning I needed to take our son for his weekly oncology visit, but our family sedan wouldn’t start. When I turned the key, all I heard was a click. I started to react and feel sorry for myself: Here I am alone, with a tremendous responsibility on my shoulders.
My husband couldn’t help me—he was on a six week assignment in New York City. I stayed behind in San Diego to care for the children. Then I remembered God and turned to him, “Lord help me,” I pleaded. “Please start this car.”
I turned the key, but the car refused to start. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me. In desperation, I begged him again, “Lord, start my car please. You know I need to get David to his appointment. I need your help.”
Again, nothing happened. I prayed some more and turned the key several times. I finally quit, slammed the car door in frustration, brushed by “Old Hairy,” our favorite palm tree, and went back into the house.
After settling my son and toddler, I went into my bedroom and shut the door. Kneeling down beside our bed, I began to quiet myself in the presence 
of God. I opened my Bible and read scriptures about his desire to meet my needs:
My God shall supply all your needs, according to His riches in Glory in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:19).
For I know the plans that I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for calamity, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart (Jeremiah 29:11-13).
Then I recalled memories of the things God had already done. I reminded him of the things he’d promised to do. And I prayed in my new prayer language. Gradually, I sensed my spirit being strengthened, my faith too.
Dropping deep into my heart, I turned to the Lord once more. As I prayed, I placed my faith and hope in the power of God and his promises. I don’t remember everything I said, but I do remember saying: “Lord would you start my car and keep it working until the day Jerry comes home from New York?”
Getting up off my knees, I marched outside to the family Ford that our boys had nicknamed “The Green Bomb.” Laying my hands on its lime-green hood, I spoke to the car and told it to start in the name of Jesus Christ. I felt rather foolish, but I determined to put my faith into action.
I slid into the driver’s seat, turned the key, and… it started! With my own eyes, I’d witnessed the power of God. Rejoicing, I put the children in the car and I drove to the clinic, praising God for He was truly with me. I was not alone: I have a living God who hears my prayers, a God who cares for me!
For the next six weeks, “Green Bomb” served me faithfully—until the day Jerry arrived home. On that very day, it refused to start, so we hauled it off for repairs.
No magic here
This experience was my first discovery that the God of power is here with me today. However the spiritual realm of God does not work through “magic,” but through faith that resides in an honest heart. There are no magical words that will make God become real to us or get our prayers answered—only an honest heart that recognizes its need and applies faith that God cannot lie, that what He said is true.
Faith is a conviction or assurance in the heart. Faith is not a formula of words we pray, but the movement in our heart that produces a new awareness within us.
Question: In what area of life is it easier for you to apply your faith in what God says?
Wonderful story of how God is real and answers prayers when our hearts are right.
To make a simple discovery of the power of God marks us forever. That first experience shines like a beacon of light when darkness tries to ovetake one. There is no way we can refute it. We must put our faith in the power of God, not the wisdom of men.