God's Faithfulness in Hard Times: When Less Became Enough.
Today's testimony is brought to you by our Heavenly Father.
If you long for a life that has God's awesome miracles, you need to live a life that needs God's awesome miracles. Can't we just pick and choose when we need God to come through in a big way? "Lord, my wallet runneth empty, please refill it."
Truthfully, I don't pretend to know why or how God chooses to provide or take away. I do know what He promises in the Bible: if we seek Him above all else and live righteously, He will give us everything we need. I am a living testament to this truth, God's grace, and God's faithfulness in hard times.
"The Lord gave me what I had and the Lord has taken it away." Job had a very unique understanding of what we think is loss. Lots of questions of fairness and "why" come up when we read this inspiring story of a faithful man. I am thankful that my experience is nowhere near what Job went through, but perhaps it doesn't need to be to have the same effect.
I've learned the HARD way that it all boils down to what we truly value and how much weight we are carrying. I'm not talking about being chubby, I'm talking about Hebrews 12:1:
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us."
That weight is much more life-threatening.
For me, it was the release of my desires, the things I have worked for or wanted. A nice house, a nice car, an awesome gun collection, to physically fit into society's mold—all of these things are heavy! They slow me down. Caring what people think holds me back from doing the great things God has for my life.
I imagine a track runner wearing one of those vests that you can add weight to. That thing is packed with all kinds of heavy plates, and it's slowing the runner down a lot. If you've ever worn one, you know the feeling after training with it and then removing it. Suddenly, you feel so much lighter. You feel so much faster, and it is all so much easier.
You are faster.
When I was working and my wife was a public high school teacher, together we brought in good money. But we struggled. We had a hard time paying our bills. The truth is, we were heavy. We carried so much extra weight from what we thought we needed to have or do.
At that time, my wife and I felt the Lord leading us to have my wife retire from public teaching and homeschool our kids. So, in an act of faith, my wife came home. She found a job as a teacher in a homeschool charter. It was less money, but we could make it work.
Then I lost my job.
The Lord provided it, and the Lord took it away.
We should have been destroyed by this, but just as God promised, He gave us everything we need. We are paying our bills! This season has become one of the clearest examples of God's faithfulness in hard times that I have ever experienced.
I'm not sure how.
We struggled to pay our bills before when we made four times as much. I love God's math, especially the multiplication.
What a surprise—God kept His promise. He shows Himself faithful to the faithful. When we released some of the weight we thought we needed to carry, we discovered that having less doesn't mean God is providing less. Sometimes it gives us a clearer view of just how much He has been providing all along.
That is God's faithfulness in hard times.
Praise God for His faithfulness.
Thank you, Father, for one more day. Amen.
