:prayer-hands: Dear Lord Jesus, You’re the Great Physician, please divinely heal Watchman and open up employment doors. Nothing is to hard for you and we have faith to believe you can change his calamities in an instant. Thank you, Lord and we give You all the praise! :amen: Watchman I am praying for you brother. There was a time for me not so long ago where I was in a similar situation and I leaned into the fact that one of God's name is Jehovah Jireh - and he came through for me - providing just what I needed, right when I needed it. I was looking for work and my car had broken down and needed repaired. I took it to the shop and had faith that somehow God would provide. The bill came to $1352 and I wasn't sure how I was going to pay for it. On that same day two checks arrived in my mailbox from two different companies - refunds for over payments that were a shock to me - the two checks together added up to exactly $1352. I was able to get my car back and I soon had a job (I too am in the IT industry). Even this past week - another example. When I was on a work trip in Australia in March I broke the mirror off the rental car. The deductible was $575. While I have the money to pay it I was hesitant as our company is going through hard times (this week all of the 2500 employees except for about a dozen of us are on furlough without pay) and I hated to shell out $575. I had a guy out of the blue offer to buy a domain name that I had been holding onto for years for $500 - and I got a rebate check in the mail for $75. Coincidence that again the total of both of these added up exactly what I owed to Avis? There is no coincidence. Time and time again God has shown me personally that he is my Father and has always demonstrated providence down to the penny. God showing off? I don't think so - I think its a demonstration that He is in control. As a Christian counselor I have helped dozens of people dealing with seemingly insurmountable challenges and my counsel to them is to lean into 1 Peter 5:7. And if they need more encouragement there's Psalms 55:22, my life verse Jer 29:11, and Phil 4:6. I'm a walking testimony that is proof that God watches over and cares for us more than we will ever know this side of Heaven. God has your back brother. Rest assured and peacefully knowing that thought Christ Jesus all things are possible and God is standing at the end of time looking backwards and has already cleared the path for you. A tip that I have also shared with my clients and I use it myself is to praise God for the current storm and ask what He wants you to learn from the challenges you are facing. Also praise him for the solution that he already has set up for your situation. Of all my Christian brothers and sisters who have been in similar situations, and I've worked with thousands of people over my career - not a single person has gone backwards from where they were. While they may not make as much money, they are now able to focus on other more meaningful things because the stress of work is not longer a factor, or the implications on their health due to their previous employer. And I'm old and know a lot of people! Look forward with joyful anticipation. You have the best recruiter in the universe on your side. Lean in, let go, and let God. Sorry guys. Going to share an update with you on my unchanged job status and apologizing in advance that my rant is not going to be pretty. Have no other human beings to share this with...and trust me, God has already gotten an earful and then some from me today. Being completely transparent, I am not very happy with Him right now about the way He has handled this whole stinking mess. It has now been almost 10 weeks since I was unfairly laid off from my job. It was not unfair that they had to lay people off (although I think the response to Covid-19 was totally overblown and unnecessarily resulted in millions like me losing our jobs). Business dropped something like 40% and they had to let people go. It was unfair because I was one of the best Project Managers on our 8-member team and had more seniority than all but two members of the team. I had literally 20 different people from the CIO down to my project team members offer to write me a recommendation on LinkedIn. I get let go, but a new guy who had been there less than 3 months and has established little to no work quality credibility takes my spot. And to add salt to the wound, to this day, my boss has never communicated with me about the layoff. Not even to say he was sorry about the circumstances or to offer to be a recommendation for me. It's a pathetic way to treat people. I would not wish losing a job on anyone, but I would expect that wise management would take advantage of an unfortunate situation to let go weaker performers and better position the company to emerge stronger on the other side (if there is an other side.) I am extremely angry right now. Angry at a fallen, unfair world, where ungodly people prosper and get to make unkind decisions that make the lives of God's kids harder. Angry at a world that has rejected 70...70 of my job applications over the past two months, while working with 9 different recruiters. Are you freakin' kidding me? Angry that I am more than willing to work and God refuses to help me find a job. Angry that I feel like a bastard...again...with a Heavenly Father who owns the whole world but cannot seem to find a spot for His son. I would never do that to my daughter if I owned a company and she needed a job. I would find a spot for her. Especially if she were in difficult circumstances through no fault of her own and was living responsibly. How come I would do that, but my God won't? I know I can't possibly be a better father than He is, but I sure as @#$% don't understand or like His ways sometimes! I don't know what He expects or wants me to do. If we are going home soon, could He not have just allowed me to stay employed until that time? I now, once again, feel unloved, unsafe, and unaccepted. And frankly, after almost 60 years, I am pretty tired of it. Frankly, it's embarrassing to me. Yeah, I am the guy who gave everyone the Christmas notes for a couple of years bragging on God and warning of His return, and now it looks like He can't even provide a job for me. I could get a call on a job tomorrow, and I still resent the way He has handled this. It breaks my heart to feel fatherless yet again. So angry. Please pray for my heart brothers and sisters, because right now I don't even feel like letting go of what seems like justified anger to me! And I am not quite sure even how to begin, oh great man of God that I am. I know I feel the same way, when trials come upon me. I guess we all could question the Lord and His provision when withheld. In this realm it sucks! But as the Lord transitions and attempts to call us into the spiritual realm, it crushes our flesh! He is trying to exact greater rewards and deeper relationship! Trust the process regardless the pain! He hasn't left you, but wants to lead you! TR While driving to my appointment today I heard a sermon about King David (a man after God’s own heart) who wrote many songs of praise to the Lord and yet when he wrote Psalm 13 ... apparently his life was in turmoil and he was anxious for his prayers to be answered and instead David started feeling rejected because the Lord didn’t respond back with the answer right away. But at the end of this passage he realizes God is still in control no matter how big and impossible the problem is. David realizes God still has a plan for his life and he was determined to focus not on the calamity but to trust in God’s faithfulness and mercy and rejoicing in God’s salvation. We need to do the same ... by counting our blessings and rejoice in the fact we are heaven bound. We are not to envy the lost because their life might seem rosy and great right now. We have to remember its just a mirage ... this life is the best the unsaved will ever have. So keep focusing on the goodness of the Lord and trust Him. He is working behind the scenes and in His perfect timing you will see breakthrough. Psalm 13 How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? for ever? how long wilt thou hide thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? how long shall mine enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord my God: lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death; Lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him; and those that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted in thy mercy; my heart shall rejoice in thy salvation. I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.
