No one really knows. For some reason, we cannot help but wonder about it, though. We wonder what our kids will be when they are grown. We wonder what their kids will do. Will everyone stay in the same area, or will they move to all parts of the globe? In these unsettling economic times, we wonder about employment. Will we have a job next year? next month? next week?
I have two friends whose husbands have lost their jobs after a long tenure. They are in their late fifties. It's a scary thing. They are knowledgeable, experienced and dependable. By and large, those are qualities a prospective employer seeks. However, financial pressures for corporations limit an employer's ability to hire older men with those qualities. Younger, unproven and teachable people do not command the same salary commensurate with older rivals.
It's hard for my friends' husbands. They have mortgages. They are more apt to need their insurance coverage. They are closing in on retirement age and every dime they put into a pension or 401-K is vital. It's only natural for them to wonder about their future. Will they have to relocate to another city, another state? Will they lose everything they worked for their entire lives? Could they really and truly end up homeless? It's possible. They do not know what the future holds. But, fortunately for them, they "know Who holds the future."
When Job lost his entire family, grown children with families of their own, servants, livestock and possessions, he did not know how things could get worse. When his body was wracked with sores and pain was his constant companion, he wondered what would happen next. What was left for him to lose? For Job it boiled down to complete humility and total dependence on his Creator. He had every reason to listen to his wife and "curse God and die." But he didn't. He questioned his condition and circumstances, but he did not curse God. God restored to Job all he had and more.
In the season of difficult circumstances, we are vulnerable to fear, to worry, and concern. Yet, as Christians we are assured that when we put our trust in God, He will provide. He will take care of us. He will never leave us. We do not know what tomorrow holds, but the daily trials are sufficient to battle without us borrowing battles beyond the horizon. When the abundance of "what ifs" come my way, I remember that "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me." Psalm 138:8 I pray He gives my friends the same assurance as they wait upon His provision.
What about you? Do you need God's sustaining grace to cover your heart and still your worried mind? If so, I pray He fills you with peace today. I pray you see Him move in such a way that it could only be Him to whom you give the glory. selahV