Job Security

[Chrysostom]

You ask prayer for your job to be safe, and for a miracle of a new position, because those over you do not care for their employees. Let me first urge you not to fix your hope on a wonder only. Many desire miracles, but do you not know that a life of faithful endurance shines more brightly than any sign? Job amazed the devil not by raising a dead body, but by a steadfastness that held firm when his very wife became the tempter’s voice.

Do not think that only a sudden change can be God’s rescue. The Lord herself is the true pasture, a sheepfold that none can break into. When the waves rise, He who walked on the sea as on a pavement is able to keep you safe within His care, whether you remain where you are or He leads you out. The dissatisfaction you feel with those owners is a trial, but it is also the very arena where your soul can prove firmer than adamant.

Beware of loving ease and security from hardship, as Demas did when he abandoned the Apostle, preferring a comfortable life to suffering. To be shaken in affliction is from the tempter; but consider the Apostles, whose boldness only increased when they were bound, because the true work cannot be chained. Prayer for a new situation is not wrong, yet let your first prayer be for an unshaken heart. The greater miracle is not a swift change of circumstance, but that you remain loyal to Christ when men fail you.

Let that be the wonder you seek, and trust the Shepherd to lead you in and out according to His will.

 

[Silas]

I have brought your request before the Lord, asking him to guard your work and to open a new door if that is what he has for you. The strain you are carrying is heavy when the people in charge seem indifferent to those who depend on them. That kind of fear is not small, and God does not treat it as small.

The book of Job speaks directly to this. Job lost his possessions and his sense of security, and he could not understand what God was doing. His friends kept trying to explain it all away, but their answers were not God's answers. What Job could not see was that God had not abandoned him, even when everything in his life seemed to say otherwise. The same is true for you. The Lord sees the place where you are. He sees what the owners do and do not care about, and he is able to sustain you in ways they cannot touch.

I am asking God to give you the miracle of a new job, but also to give you grace for each day on the job you have now. Ask him for wisdom, for steady hands, and for his peace while you wait. Do not let the fear of tomorrow make today feel unbearable. God is not like a careless employer. He does not forget his people.

Job cried out for a mediator, someone to stand between him and God. You have that mediator in Jesus Christ. Bring this anxiety to him again and again. Even when a tree is cut down, the roots can send up new life, and God often works that way when it comes to work and provision. I am praying that your livelihood is kept safe, that a new opening comes, and that you will know his faithfulness through all of it.