“For I know the
plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm
you, plans to give you hope and a future”. Jeremiah
29:11
As any of you that have read this
blog long know, Jeremiah 29:11 is one of my favorite verses. It is so
comforting to know that no matter how it looks, no matter how illogical it
appears to be that God has a plan and He’s got it all under control.
As I've mentioned
before the last 4 years have been hard. Cliff and I went from both having
middle management jobs and living very comfortably to 4 layoffs in 4 years.
Needless to say our bank balances were much prettier 5 years ago than they are
now.
You've heard the saying “it
was the best of times; it was the worst of times”?
Without the layoffs we would not
have learned how to relax and leave it to the Lord. We have seen His hand on us
so many times over the last 5 years. There have been so many occasions when “it
was a God thing” is the only possible explanation for things that happened.
When times were at their worst for the economy and jobs were very scarce and
applicants more than plentiful for every job that came open God arranged an
interview for me as I stood in line at a restaurant. I didn't get the
job in fact it would take almost a year before God opened the door for a job
for me but because of “the interview” our faith did not waiver. If God had
spoken to me out loud in an audible voice it would not have been any clearer to
me that God was telling me to keep the faith, keep doing what I was supposed to
be doing, and when the time was right He’d open the door for just the right job
for me. Consequently we kept our focus on God not the problems, God continued
to be faithful and we kept “walking on the water”
I was talking to a good friend a
while back about some news we had received. An inheritance of mineral rights
from many years ago that my mother-in-law received, then passed down to us almost
20 years ago was going to come through to us just at a time when we needed it
more than any other time in Cliff and I's 25 years of marriage. Her comment was
something along the lines of God has seen how you've handled
the challenges of the last few years, and how you have remained
faithful and now He is rewarding you. I don't know about that, actually I'm
extremely thankfully God doesn't always give us what we deserve, I have
made some whoppers of mistakes through the years and skated by without getting
the just desserts from them I deserved, but her comments made me start
thinking, then I read the following scripture:
Consider it pure joy, my brothers
and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know
that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let
perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not
lacking anything. James 1:2-4
The wheels started turning a
little bit faster; there may even have been some smoke. This verse pretty much
tells the story of our last 4 years. No, the trials that came our
way weren't fun but the faith and assurance we have, having come
through them is pure joy. I wouldn't trade it for anything. The first
layoff was really hard, but it pulled us closer to God and we learned and grew
so much. By the time the 2nd and
3rd layoff came along
we were looking at them as pearl making opportunities and were able to focus on
looking forward to what God was going to do with them rather than wringing our
hands and wallowing in despair. I believe that “Consider it pure joy” doesn't mean
it’s going to feel like joy, just that you should think of it as joy; looking
forward to what God is going to do to turn it to your ultimate good. Focus on
the end result and how awesome God is not the current circumstance.
“testing of your
faith produces perseverance” By the time the 4th layoff rolled around this year, we
were able to react with confidence and faith we could of never ever imagined
having back in 2010, the lessons learned with the first 3 layoffs allowed us to
face the 4th one with confidence that God was in control and had a plan. By
this time we knew that the drilling on the land we owned mineral rights on had
been successful and we would be getting in some much needed extra income. If I
was in charge of the world, my “perfect” plan would have been to have the check
come in the day Cliff was laid off. As usual God had a better plan. He had
Cliff go to an interview that didn't exist and still have an hour and
half interview for a job that didn't exist, but that they hired him
for anyway. We are in no doubt that Cliff is working right where he’s supposed
to be. Seriously the only way God could have made it any clearer would have
been to write it in neon on our ceiling.
“Let perseverance finish its work
so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” Yesterday we got a
check from the drilling company that will put us in the best financial
shape we've ever been in. I look at where we are now and where we
were 4 years ago and know beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are much better
able to handle this now than we would have been 4 years ago. We have a maturity
in our walk with God that we didn't have then. Now, we know we need
God just as much if not more on the mountains as we do in the
valleys. You've probably heard the one about there being no atheists
in foxholes during a war. In the valleys of life human nature is to know we
need God, when things are going well we tend to think we can handle it
ourselves. With maturity, we know we need His guidance every single moment of
every single day and that we can depend on Him totally. How incredibly awesome
is our God, He gives us what we need just when we need it and He knows what
that is better than we ourselves ever could.
Thank You God for your wonderful
provisions for all your children.
No comments:
Post a Comment