Since 2008 the world economy has been crumbling, falling apart and many nations have been affected, some, like Greenland as a country filed for bankruptcy, while others have seen massive multinational corporations fold over night. We watch the news, and count the numbers of people affected, and then hear from a close friend they have been terminated because the company closed down literally overnight.
For many Christians, being unemployed is embarrassing. Suddenly, we find ourselves without a job. We are, perhaps without success, seeking employment. But we can’t help asking ourselves, “What are people thinking about my being out of work? Do they think I’m lazy, no good, or just a freeloader?” No doubt, being without a job can be embarrassing, even within our families, and more so within our communities and circle of friends.
We all have heard of, or even met, people who have been described as “bums or dregs of society.” We’ve all heard comments describing people who don’t work as “no-good, lazy sponges on society.” Sometimes the society we live in has a tendency to look at anyone who is not working as a freeloader.
As Christians we may have told people we believe God will bless us and provide us with a job. But He hasn’t… yet.
Lamentations 3v21-26 expresses this very embarrassment and frustration. Although an Old Testament book, these verses really describe the situation in which many of us find ourselves – embarrassed!
“My own people laugh at me. All day long they sing their mocking songs. He has filled me with bitterness and given me a bitter cup of sorrow to drink. He has made me chew on gravel. He has rolled me in the dust. Peace has been stripped away, and I have forgotten what prosperity is. I cry out, “My splendor is gone! Everything I had hoped for from the LORD is lost!”
If you, or someone you know finds themselves in this difficult and unfortunate situation right now, be encouraged, and remember that no matter how awful a time you are having trying to be gainfully employed, and feel that you are knocking on all the wrong doors, always remember that you are never alone, and that the journey you are on, is the same journey someone else is taking, most often than not, alone, and without the Lord.
Pride can be such a dreadful tool of the enemy! But in abandoning arrogance, and allowing our lives to become vulnerable, is often likened to fertile soil which the Lord can use to bring growth. A wonderful key to ushering in God’s favor is to find someone who is journeying the same road as you, and to bring them and their needs before the Lord, divert your attention from your circumstances and cry to the Lord for their needs, for their provision, for God’s favor on their lives, and for untold blessings to shower them. When we engage our faith away from ourselves and pray the Lord’s blessing on others, despite our own lack and needs – the Lord has an amazing mechanism called “answered prayer” that will bring provision to you and your household that you never would have considered, let alone thought possible…surely greater things are yet to come?
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