Steering Wheel or Spare Tire

“Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?”
― Corrie ten Boom

When I was in my early twenties my Dad decided that I needed to learn how to change a tire.   We lived in Dallas and Dad wanted to make sure that if I ever had a flat tire, that I could change it on my own without help.  Dad was always good at teaching lessons through wisdom.  We parked my car behind the garage and he told me that it would be good to rotate my tires at the same time.  Now I was thinking that this would take about thirty minutes tops.  Well if you have ever rotated your own tires, it takes quite a bit longer and spending a Saturday rotating my tires wasn’t really my idea of a great time but I understood the purpose of this lesson. 

So we start the process of trying to remove the lug nuts from the first tire.  I am not a large person and I could not budge the first one even when I stood on the tire tool.   (This is the whole reason to do this lesson.  To make sure you can even get the tire off is a good thing.)  So Dad decides I need a “cheater.”  If you don’t know what a cheater is the best way to describe it is “finding something to use as leverage.”  By the way this definition is not in the dictionary so I am not sure where it came from or if I even spelled it right. 

My Dad is very resourceful, so he designed me a cheater out of PVC pipe that I could leave in my trunk for emergencies.   I could slide the pipe onto the end of the tire tool and it gave me enough leverage to loosen the lug nuts.  I spent that Saturday rotating my tires while my Dad sat in a lawn chair observing and giving pointers. 

Not long after that lesson I did have a flat tire on LBJ Freeway and I had someone pull up behind me but not close enough to help me.  I remember how scared I was because I don’t think the guy was there to help me because he just sat there and watched to see what I would do.   Fortunately for me, another car pulled up and a young man got out and helped me change the tire.  He said he saw the other man sitting behind me watching and he decided to stop as he had a young wife and he would want someone to stop and help her.  God sends angels when you least expect it. 

Anyway the moral of this story is that I want prayer to be my steering wheel, not my spare tire.  I want my prayer life to be about using it to steer my life, not just when things get really bad, or when I want something.  I want prayer to be the first thing I think about and utilize in my everyday life.  The more I use prayer as my steering wheel, the more I see God at work in my everyday life.  If I only use it when there is disaster or trial then it is always going to be in the trunk which is not going to help me much in this life.  The steering wheel is what points me in the right direction.  The spare tire is only there to keep me going if something happens.  And believe me something is going to happen and I want God to be in the front seat not in the trunk.

Prayer for the Day: Heavenly Father, my spare tire is there for emergencies only.  I want You to be up front driving and to do that I have to always remember that prayer is my way of reaching you and placing you behind my steering wheel.  Help me to pray in every situation and with thanksgiving.  You are an amazing God and I know that when I present my requests to You, You listen, You care and You are near me.     

Scripture: Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  Philippians 4:6