A Testament To Our Faith

Yesterday I had a big plan to write today’s post all about how I intend on getting in enough water this summer. More of a “how to” post if you will.

But then, in the evening, while we were hanging out at the church just passing the time with a friend a conversation was started and it got me thinking. Our pastor is out of town currently for his annual week long vacation. This means that my awesome hubby was given the opportunity to preach.

Now, I may be a bit bias BUT, I just love hearing him share God’s word with the people that have come to really be like family for us. I also love how real, and raw, and genuine he gets when it comes to his sermons. Every time Dusty preaches he always draws examples from our life to use. The best advice he was ever given, way back when he first started preaching and constructing sermons, was that often the best preached sermons were the ones he needed to hear himself rather than what the congregation needed to hear. And he has taken that to heart and now, when he gets the opportunity to preach it always seems to be the message he and I need to hear and the rest of the people just get to come along for the ride.

And this week was no different.

Recently (like just over a week ago) Dusty quit his “real’ job. The one that was paying our bills and putting food on the table. After several months of both of us being miserable with his work schedule as well as working with individuals that just sent up red flags more than once the time finally came. The straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak. And just like that we were back on the job market having to make the little bit of money I bring in from caring for 2 kids during the week and the little bit of money we get from the church cover our bills.  This isn’t the first time we have been in this position. Actually, lately it seems like every year or so we go through the job hunting process. It’s not that we want to be bouncing from job to job but that is just how things keep working out.
However, for the first time I wasn’t afraid. I didn’t go into panic mode. I didn’t automatically begin picturing every worst case scenario of how Dusty not having a job was going to be our downfall.

I just knew we would be ok.

“A true testament to our faith”

1.) I am not going through this alone. 

“And if someone overpowers one person, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not easily broken” Ecclesiastes 4:12

Not only do I have my husband to go through this struggle with me but I have God to rely on. Often, when we would go though these moments before I would make my husband into the enemy. I would shift the blame on to him and accuse him of not caring, or not wanting to do what needs to be done for the family. But ultimately, in all the job changes we have had it hasn’t been his fault. And each time the Lord has lead us into the exact thing that we needed at the time. Each new job has provided what we needed when we needed it and the we are open to move on to the next adventure God has in store for us.

2) Worrying won’t do me any good anyway.

“Therefore, don’t worry about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:34

3) God has the plan so who am I to freak out and question it?

“For I know the plans I have for you”-this is the Lord’s declaration-“Plans for your welfare not disaster, to give you a future and a hope” Jeremiah 29:11

This one little verse is used to make all kinds of promises to people out in the world. But the long and short of it is this: If we get out of God’s way and we let him do what he needs to do he has good plans for us. That may not mean today or tomorrow. In fact, for the people it was written to originally it meant a very long time down the road. But the truth is, the plans God has for me, the future and the the hope he is offering doesn’t exist in this world or this time anyway. These plans are for a life everlasting with the Lord. So how we are going to pay our bills, or how we are going to buy groceries will all be worked out. One way or another. But I know that its all temporary anyway.here today and gone tomorrow. So what is the point in in freaking out.

Does this mean that it’s a “True testament to our faith”? Maybe. I know that most days I feel like I am falling down flat in the faith area. But I know that when I look back at my footprints in the sand, it is these times that there will only be one set. And that is because I am being carried by the one who’s arms are strong enough to hold all the weight of the world so I don’t have to.

What passages do you go to in the hard times? Let me know in the comments!