Prayer Story

Each week, my church has a prayer story written by a church member in the worship guide. I love having the opportunity each week to see how God is answering prayers and moving in the lives of the people I worship with each week. Several weeks ago, I had the opportunity to share one of mine and decided to share it here as well.

GOD ANSWERS PRAYER
January, 2012, found me looking for work. Like so many, as the weeks turned to months, I found myself discouraged and frustrated. One of the things I have learned is the importance of getting involved during these hard times.

I was new to The Fellowship at Cinco Ranch and decided early on to get involved in the Prayer Ministry, a ladies Bible study, and a Life Group where I made new friends and found much-needed encouragement. I am particularly grateful for my Life Group. I love doing life with this group of people. Early on, I was impressed by their willingness to share and wrestle with spiritual things together. I was touched by their concern each week as they wanted to know how things were going and what they could pray. These days, they are friends that I love and trust dearly.

I also learned a lot about looking for a job in this day of technology and social media. Even though I hadn’t found a job yet, God began to lay on my heart that maybe I could help other job-seekers with what I was learning. I talked to Pastor Tim about how I could share my knowledge.  A seminar which I led was held in April, 2013, on using technology and social media in the job search. I hope to do another in the coming months.

These things and the part-time contract work I found helped keep me on track during a time when it would have been very easy to give up. There were some days that I did want to give up, but God continued to remind me that He was still in control.

The part-time work was a blessing because I was at least able to pay the bills. But then, right around the end of April, I got notice that the contract work I had been doing was abruptly ending. I freaked out!  I knew that God had provided before, but I was tired and frustrated and felt done in. By Thursday, June 2nd, I decided I’d give the job search two more weeks and then I would have to see about doing whatever kind of work was available just so I’d have some money coming in.

I started sending emails out to all my contacts again. That included a couple of panicked emails and texts to friends who I knew would pray. One of these friends encouraged me to talk to God by writing out what I was feeling in a journal. Funny how sometimes it is someone telling you to do something that will motivate you to do what you know you should have been doing all along. Sometimes you need a friend to jolt you out of “panic” mode.  I quickly discovered that writing out my frustrations and claiming Bible verses brought my focus back to our great God where it belongs.

The verses in 2 Corinthians 4:8 reminded me that “we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair” and I confessed to God that I was feeling a little crushed and in despair. I prayed for wisdom and favor.

That weekend, I found a position that interested me through one of my job alerts. It was for a web content developer/technical writer. While I did not have experience with technical writing, the description said good verbal skills and everything else seemed to fit, so I applied.   On Monday, the recruiter emailed me with a couple of documents to work on as a sort of pre-test.   The client received them on Wednesday and the recruiter called me later in the day and asked if I could come in for some more pre-interview tests.

On Thursday I took a personality test, a verbal skills test and a math test.  By the time I got home 35 minutes later, the recruiter called saying the client wanted to interview me on Monday.

I got up super early Monday because the interview was at 9 a.m. in The Woodlands.  (Though I’d be working from home, this is where the company is based).  The early appointment meant dealing with rush hour traffic, so I left extra early and ate breakfast up there. I interviewed with the president of the company and one other person.  They asked for some samples of my writing and said their timeline for hiring was 2 weeks. I thought it went well enough, but after all the many interviews I’ve been through — it was hard to get even a little excited.

The recruiter called that afternoon before I had even had time to put together writing samples. She told me I had the job and asked if I could start the next day! The rest of the day was very dream-like. I was stunned and felt like I was going to wake up and it would all have been a dream.  It was even within the two weeks I had set!

It wasn’t a dream! I have been working for a month now. Not only did God provide something that pays well, He answered my prayers with a job I really enjoy. I am so grateful for His goodness, for new friends I have made through this journey, for old friends and my dad and my Life Group who have been such a support, and for the opportunity to help other job-seekers through the knowledge I have gained.

Humble yourselves therefore under God’s mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time.  1 Peter 5:6