I’ve been waiting for a while to actually have this testimony. But now I finally have it.
Being a grad student, I had the privilege of being a teaching assistant while I studied, which enabled me to earn a few bucks to help with cost of living. However, realizing that I needed to finish my thesis and really get out of the school environment for a while, I opted to not take another teaching assistantship and just focus on righting my paper. (I am not sure if I would have gotten the job anyway, because the University tends to prefer new incoming grads than older ones when it comes to giving those positions. In any case it was a four month contract
I didn’t renew my contract in faith that I would find a job. And unlike the times before, I wanted a full time job. But I needed to take my chances. I was going to trust God for a job.
Of course you can anticipate the outcome of this testimony. But I want to put the variables and the doubts that I had.
- It’s a bad economy. Everyone’s complaining about that. And my field is Political Science with a concentration in Econ Development. I can’t tell you how many ‘career experts’ have said to me “there’s no jobs for your field right now”.
- People are laying off not taking on more people.
- I have no skills in Mcdonalds, retail, waitressing, etc. So some jobs, while I don’t mind working them, just wasn’t going to work for me.
- Money was running low….really………..low.
I began to pray to God for the job. And you know what? I’d be honest. I had my doubts. It was like everyone that I prayed for got a job. Two for some people! And so I began to doubt myself. Not my faith in God. But I began to doubt whether I had done something to offend HIm. You know what I mean? That;s when the enemy puts you on a guilt trip to tell you there’s something you’ve done wrong. And that’s why God wasn’t coming through for you.
So from January to August 1st, I prayed. I cried. I also applied for jobs all over the world. But I got so many rejection notices, it just made me feel really bad and unqualified. In the mean time, life went from bad to worse financially. Like really, really bad. Like account in overdraft position-can’t use credit cards- emergency funds low—-bad. And it seems as if the bills just kept coming in, despite the fact that I had no income coming in.
In the back of my head though. I had some thoughts. And it was these thoughts that I held onto for dear life.
- I have never seen the righteous forsaken, nor His seed begging bread. Psalm 37:25
- He knows my name. He knows my desires.
- What father gives his child a stone when he asks for bread? Matt 7:9
- God loves me. I don’t understand why things have to come to rock bottom. But I trust that He loves me. John 3:16
- God has always provided a job for me in the past. Since I returned to Canada, I have never been without a job. He’s given me so much favour with man, that jobs were created just for me when I needed them.
I continued to do some other things too. Because faith without works is really dead.
- I continued to tithe. No matter how small it was. My tax refunds, a small gift from someone. mysterious money appearing in my account. I tithed.
- I continued to give and sow into other people’s lives.
- i continued to give thanks (hence the 21 days of gratitude fast)
- I continued to trust Him no matter how difficult.
- I kept smiling
Then I told God my Father, what I want:
- I said I want to stay in THIS city or close by, because I want to be connected to my church. That’s where i am fed. I also believe that this is where I need to be right now. (Mind you, Windsor ON, has the worst unemployment rate in the country)
- I want a job based on my qualifications. What you have called me to do.
- I want a job that is full time, and that will pay me a decent salary so that I can give back to your work (PS: When God gives you favour, you use it for your glory. I didn’t want a job to make myself look prettier. I wanted it to increase His Kingdom).
Well, God provided a job for me. It’s not just any job. It’s a launching pad to the start of my career, because it’s in my field and it’s exactly what I’ve been called to do.The economy may be bad, but OUR GOD is ALWAYS GOOD. All the times when I compared, myself to people that had been given jobs, I actually got a position that is in my field. I didn’t settle. I didn’t get desperate.
In His own time, people, He makes everything right. And I know it doesn’t seem that way right now for you. But you keep believing, you keep trusting God and you will have what you’ve prayed for. God is preparing something so great for you, that it will blow your socks off. Don’t give up. When He presents it to you, you will have no other choice but to say,
“this is the Lord’s doing and it is marvelous in my eyes”- Psalm 118:23
