I am almost broke, but not broken. I’m in between jobs but I am not unemployed. If anything, I am on a “Hard Reset”. I am the Lord’s provision for my family. I am resetting my priorities in this order:
- God
- Marriage
- Family
- Work and Ministry
I’ve been here before. Almost on a yearly basis! But He has never let me down! As I was driving my daughter from school, we had a familiar conversation that ended with her saying “Something will work out! Something always works out! You’ll be fine!” I guess she’s been through the drill a number of times. Indeed as I look back, God has been faithful. I left a job in 2018 and later got hired into a better job a few months later, one that paid two and half times more. I later got retrenched in 2019 (I now know how that feels) but got hired a few months down the road for a major project preparing 18 strategic plans for the 3rd largest logistics group in the Philippines. Each time I was on a mission; Each time I recovered. Each time I grew. I learned. Everything was added on.
The transitions suck! The “in-betweens”. Friends, even other believers tend to think “How can someone of such talent, skill and experience never hold down a job?” Believe me, if I knew the reasons for this problem, I would’ve solved it! But there are things that are just out of my control. Some people might think I’m cursed! And at some point I even believed that I am!
I just finished reading a devotional on Job and I have to confess that I often skipped through the bad parts. It was unbearable! Most especially if I could relate to the suffering. But I just realized that God was teaching me a lesson about Job’s friends! They believed he was cursed! But Job wasn’t cursed. He was afflicted…
An affliction as defined by the dictionary as condition or state that causes suffering and agony. The state could be constant and nagging, but in most cases these are allowed to be placed upon our lives to demonstrate the Resurrective Power of Christ. Because he frees us from our afflictions.
It is done so that His power may be revealed and so glorifies God! Remember Lazarus? He was already dead for four days! For many, It was over! Even for Job, his friends even said to curse God so he can die. Call me cursed but there is no curse greater than God’s plan for my life.
Jesus, upon hearing the death of Lazarus wept! But Jesus delayed!
‘So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. ‘ John 11:6
But why did he? Because while everyone thought it was over it was:“so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.”
Same with Job. And did not God allow these things to happen to him so that he can be restored.
The Lord Restores Job’s Fortunes
10And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
I am afflicted, but I am not cursed. I am covered by the blood of Christ, the Lamb of God. Yes the transition sucks and people will have their judgements, but transitions are used to reset, to train and to receive a greater mission ahead.
“Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;” Psalm 144:1
John Walter Bay 