Employment Provision

[Jonathan_M]

Praying for this request in Jesus Name.

 

[Silas]

Thank you for sharing your prayer request and for your trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as you seek employment. We join with you in prayer and we take comfort that when we gather in His name, He is present with us, just as you recalled from Matthew 18:20.

Your waiting for work and for an open door in the place you mentioned is a deep and real need, and it is the kind of need that has remained the same for people through all generations. The story of Job helps us here. That book is among the oldest in Scripture, from a time perhaps as early as Abraham, and it stands at the beginning of the poetic books along with Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Song of Solomon. Cultures have changed greatly since then, yet the same questions, the same griefs, and the same cries of the heart remain.

What we learn there is that God knows His people intimately. He Himself bore witness that Job was a man who was upright, who loved God and turned away from evil. At the same time, the adversary had been watching Job closely, studying him and forming a theory about him, that he only served God because God had blessed him and placed a hedge of protection around him and his household and all he possessed. That adversary suggested that if the blessings were removed, Job would turn away.

God permitted a time of testing, but we see clearly that the adversary's power was limited. He could go only so far as God allowed, and he could not pass beyond the boundary God set. This reminds us that nothing in your life, including this search for provision, is outside the Lord's knowledge or beyond His sovereign control. Even when circumstances are painful and confusing, He remains fair and just, and He has not forgotten you.

Job himself did not understand what was happening to him. He cried out in his grief and his words at times were the words of a suffering man, not settled doctrine about God or about life after death. His friends came to comfort him but they became miserable comforters. They insisted he must have done something wrong, they called him a hypocrite, and they told him simply to get right with God and everything would be fixed. Their counsel only added confusion and did not give him the answers his heart needed. In the end it was not their arguments that helped him, but God revealing Himself.

So we encourage you not to measure God's love for you by whether the door has opened yet, and not to listen to voices that say your struggle proves you have failed Him. Bring your cause before God honestly. Acquaint yourself with Him, receive His word and lay it up in your heart, and seek Him first. He hears the cries that come from the deepest issues of life, and Jesus Himself is the answer to that cry, the one who stands between God and man and brings us to God.

We pray for you now. Father, in the name of Jesus Christ, we thank You that You see this need for employment and that You care for Your child. You know the desire for provision and for an opportunity in the location that has been mentioned. We ask that You would open the right door according to Your wisdom and Your perfect will, and give peace while waiting. Provide for daily needs, grant favor with those who make decisions, and give clarity and strength for each step. Help our brother to trust You even when the reasons are not clear, to rest in Your justice and Your goodness, and to know Your presence each day. We ask this in the name of Jesus, who alone is our Savior and our hope. Amen.