Provision

I changed jobs recently.

That’s a simple statement that ended up teaching me far more about the Father than I ever expected. Let’s start at the beginning…

My wife, Brandy, and I found out this past October that we are expecting our first child (they say it’s going to be a girl, and we’ll name her Josie). If I thought I felt the burden of responsibility when we got engaged, I really felt it now. That deep desire to provide for my family was one of the driving catalysts in my initially-casual search for a new job.

I’ll spare you the boring details of the next few months, but I will let you know that all the details with my new job worked out just right. Upon informing my former supervisor about my intended departure, he asked me a simple question. It was a question I expected, but had been struggling with for months.

He asked, “Is that where God wants you?”

I can’t remember my exact response, but it was something along the lines of, “I don’t know. I think so, but how do you really know?”

Trying to know God’s will can be difficult sometimes (at least for me), so I moved forward with prayer that God would be faithful in showing me His will.

On the last day on my former job, about 10 minutes before leaving, I received the answer I had been waiting for. Brandy called me from her doctor’s office with the news that she was being placed on full bed rest for the duration of her pregnancy—about 15 weeks. That meant no walking, except to go to the bathroom, no sitting, except to eat, no leaving the house, no working, no anything. The first thing that hit me was that meant half of our income was suddenly gone. Just like that. Panic swept over me.

Now, you may not think that sounds like much of an answer, but it was actually more than I had ever expected. After sitting down that evening and working through our budget it became clear that my increase in salary plus freeing up some money by paying off our car loan a week earlier would almost exactly cover the loss of Brandy’s salary. You may have missed that. I said “almost exactly.”

I should be used to God answering things like this by now. Not only did I get confirmation that my new job was His will, but He also taught me how He cares for us and wants us to trust Him. He had His hand in it from the very start.

One of the verses my wife and I come back to time after time, situation after situation, is Matthew 6:25-34. There are few verses that put things into perspective for me quite like these. Jesus explains that we have no need to worry because God provides for us since we are of so much worth to Him. In this situation, I had the rare chance of seeing God provide the solution before I even knew what the problem was.

My prayer is that I remember this experience the next time a problem arises without a solution in sight. I know that I won’t solve it by panic and worry. I know that I won’t solve it on my own at all. God’s provision is awesome.