Yesterday it was announced that the unemployment rate in the country is the highest it has been in 26 years, a stunning 10.2 percent. I read that a major school bus plant in Conway is shutting down and that 477 people will be let go. Layoffs are still happening locally as well. We all know people who are hurting out there and have been unemployed for a long time now.
Having been through this myself a few short years ago, I understand the stress, strain and other thoughts and feelings that one has when God allows this to happen to us. As I was reflecting on this in my quiet time this morning, Oswald Chamber’s book, My Utmost for His Highest spoke to me as it has so many times before. Please allow me to share a few of his thoughts with you today.
Romans 8:28 We know that all things work together for those who love God….
The circumstances of a believer’s life are ordained of God. In the life of a believer there is no such thing as chance. God by his providence brings you into circumstances that you can’t understand at all, but the Spirit of God understands. God brings you to places, among people, and into certain conditions to accomplish a definite purpose through the intercession of the Spirit in you…..All your circumstances are in the hand of God, and therefore you don’t ever have to think they are unnatural or unique.
These word provided a great deal of comfort to me when I was going through my own long journey between jobs. I found great comfort in meditating on them and praying about them.
If you get the opportunity, please reach out to someone you know who is experiencing this journey and share these words of encouragement with them today. But if you can’t do that, then please intercede for these people in prayer. Chambers provides us with another powerful thought on this:
YOUR part in intercessory prayer is not to agonize over how to intercede, but to use everyday circumstances and people God puts around you by His providence to bring them before His throne, and to allow the Spirit in you the opportunity to intercede for them….I must do the human side of intercession–utilizing the circumstances in which I find myself and the people who surround me….then as I lift different ones to God through prayer, the Holy Spirit intercedes for them.
Finally, if you know someone going through this, please connect them with our ministry, The Joseph Project. We want to help.
http://workmatters.org/the_joseph_project/
