Tuesday, March 15, 2011

A New Chapter...

Hey Everyone!

(If you are just logging onto my blog and you have not previously read the two posts below, I would recommend reading them first so you'll be up to speed on this update)...

I just have to say thank you all so very much for all of your prayers and the sweet messages of encouragement that many of you have sent me. I have saved every one of them in a special folder that I can go back and look at over and over again whenever I am having a rough day. They are precious reminders of how much my Heavenly Daddy loves me. I love how He loves on us through others!

Most of you will know that I have been looking for a job/income for quite some time now. For months, I have had many doors abruptly shut that just didn't make sense. I was left so confused and had moments where I questioned God's will for my life. I was trusting Him the best I could, but there was still some doubt looming in the back of my mind.

However, God was doing something very special within me while I was waiting. He was answering other desperate prayers that I had cried out to Him flat on my face more times than I can recount. What God wanted to do in my life needed a lot of concentrated time with Him as He poured out His love and His Word into my heart. He brought me to the point that I realized He was more than enough. It took Him allowing almost everything I had any security in to be stripped away, but what He gave me in exchange was worth so much more. He gave me the gift of Himself. This I have come to realize is the ultimate, most loving thing God could ever do for me.

Within a week after I finally just threw up my hands knowing that there was nothing more I could do, I received an unexpected message from a guy who used to play in a worship band with me, but who I had not seen in months. He asked what I was doing for work these days because he just so happened to possibly have a position opening up with his software hosting company.

I scheduled an interview with him and was offered the position of Executive Assistant on the spot! The company is Christian-owned and works with many missions organizations and churches. The guys I work with are all Christians and it was so refreshing to go into work on my first day and sit down with them to pray before we started our staff meeting. What is huge about this job is that I have been given the flexiblity to be able to leave when I am involved in other ministry commitments, which means I can continue to walk through the doors that God is opening for me to serve in ministry.

And if all that is not enough - our office is right by the water, so I can sit outside by the bay and gaze at God's beauty while eating my lunch everyday! Does God SO know me, or what?! I already have picked out my favorite shade tree to sit under where God and I are going to be having some special times together!

God kept His Word in promising to provide! Tears well up in my eyes as I type this because God proved Himself faithful and trustworthy yet again, even though I doubted Him so many times. He didn't do this for me because I had an extroardinary amount of faith. He did it simply out of His unfailing and perfect love for this flawed and imperfect girl. I can look back now and see how He has been working and realize He has been loving on me all along, even when I didn't recognize it.

I believe there is someone out there who needs to hear this story. I literally searched for jobs for months with no responses. I finally had to just give up, knowing that even if the worst thing happened that my Jesus would be right by my side through it all. Maybe you've been there. Maybe you're there right now. Maybe you've reached a dead end and don't know what to do. God sometimes allows us to get to that point so that we realize that He really is enough.

We can't always understand why God doesn't respond the way we want Him to sometimes. However, we can trust that He knows exactly what He is doing. In this very moment, He IS working everything out for your good. In time you will be able to look back and see how He was working behind the scenes the whole time. Don't give up, brothers and sisters - keep trusting Him - and He WILL reveal Himself to you!

"I waited patiently for the Lord; He turned to me and heard my cry. He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire, He set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand. He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord."

Psalm 40:1-3

Love,

Jen

2 comments:

Beautiful Grace said...

Oh JENN, praise the Lord. I so needed to hear this today. Very happy for you.

Christy said...

Congrats! God's timing is always so perfect, isn't it?