God Comes with Power to My Work ...Literally! (Nov 18, 1997)

It was late in the work day and I was hungry. I had this can of chocolate flavored protien supplement which I felt like I really needed. The stuff doesn't taste that great cold, but if you heat it, it tastes like hot chocolate. So I poured the stuff into a coffee cup and went to the kitchen area of our company, which is very near our receptionist's desk. There is a microwave in the kitchen area, and I like to heat the protien supplement in the microwave, turning it into "hot chocolate".

I put the cup in the microwave, pushed all the right buttons and .... nothing happened.

"Oh, Lord! Please, I really want this stuff hot!" The prayer slipped out before I even realized it... prayer has become very much a part of my lifestyle.... I pray about everything, even little things like this.

I pushed the bottons again, and the microwave started up.

Just then the receptionist walked into the kitchen. She was talking to me even before she got in there...

"Sorry, Teresa, the microwave is broken. It went out earlier today.... hey! What did you do it to it to get it working?"

"I prayed."

"No, really, what did you do?"

"Really, I prayed."

"Awe... come on... what did you really do."

"I really prayed."

"Why would God fix a microwave for you? That doesn't even make sense."

"Because He knew I really wanted this chocolate hot. So He did it for me."

"You're kidding, right? God really answers your prayers when you pray?"

"Yeah, lots of times. It's all about relationship. If you are in relationship with Him, then He gets involved in every area of your life, even little things like this."

"No way!"

"Yeah."

"Gee, maybe you could pray for me to win the lottery."

"I don't think it works quite like that."

"Oh, if I win, I'll donate a lot of money to charity... that should make Him happy."

"That's not quite how it works.. it's about getting your life in alignment with His Lordship... letting Him be the boss..."

"Hey, I think it's all about doing good and treating people right."

(Sometimes I'm a little slow, but I suddenly realized that God was opening a door for me to witness to her. She'd been in the hospitial all last week with a bad asthma attack. I felt like I was supposed to invite her to the Wedensday night healing services our Church just started having a couple of weeks ago.. and I'd been praying that God would open an opportinity to invite her. Maybe this was it, but maybe it was more... I was not sure how to proceed so I silently asked God to show me.)

"Well, not exactly. We can talk about sometime if you want."

"If Christianity's not about doing good to people and treating them right... then I don't even want to talk to you about it."

Suddenly a wisdom that was not my own came on me... "Well, you got part of it right. The bible says the greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your soul and all of your spirit. The second command is similar...love your neightbor as yourself. You are certainly right that treating people well and doing good is important... in fact, it's the second most important commandment. But the most important piece of it is to be in a personal and dynamic relationship with God... to love Him and obey Him and let Him be the boss of your life...."

The conversation continued for a little longer, she was open and receptive. I mentioned that if she ever had a free Wednesday night, she might want to consider coming to my Church and let us pray for her about her asthma. She said she'd like to do that... maybe in early December. I was astonished at how open and receptive she was... and I began to realize the reason the Lord "fixed" the microwave wasn't just to give me a cup of hot chocoloate, but to demonstrate is power and His caring to an unsaved coworker. I was so excited about this, and will be following up with her on prayer for her healing and also on the personal relationship with God.

Well, there is a little more to the microwave portion of the story. The next day I was sitting in my office working. She walked in and said, "Hey, Terese, the microwave's gone out again. Do you want to pray over it and see if you can fix it again."

I told her that it probably didn't work that way.. but I went over and tried the microwave... and Larry (another coworker) was standing there. Well, he asked me if I was going to do my voodoo mumbo-jumbo over it. (I guess karen, our receptionist, has been talking about yesterday's microwave incident.) I said that I didn't do any magic, but somtimes God answers my prayers because I have a deep and close personal relationship with Him. Well, the microwave did not start, but God did give me an opportunity to share the gosple briefly with another co-worker...

He has a way of working things to His glory and arranging the most interesting (sometimes even humorous) divine coincidents. I am praying that the Lord will heal Karen's asthma as a sigh to the whole company that He is both real and caring. At any rate, I'm inviting Him to continue to orcherstrate divine appointments at work...

Blessings!