We shouldn’t have made it. After months of unemployment and futile job searching, our little savings ran completely out.
We tried to save money in every way we could think of. We had done without a lot, and lived on next to nothing. But eventually, the money just ran out. I was scared when I looked at the empty bank account and our less-than-stocked pantry. I had no idea if we’d get work tomorrow or a year from now. Putting food on the table and paying rent and utility bills can’t happen with nothing. That moment felt hopeless.
We prayed for a solution, for something to happen. We’d prayed that a lot in the past year. We worked any odd job we could find. We knew it wouldn’t be enough, but at the end of the month? Somehow it was. We couldn’t explain it. It felt as if Angels had stretched our little bit of money to be just what we needed. Not more, but just enough to pay our rent and our electric bill. Right then, I knew we could be okay.
But God didn’t just leave it at that — somehow, every month, there was just enough to pay the rent. It was always something we didn’t expect: an unaddressed envelope with money from a stranger. A random job here and there when we didn’t have money for gas. A few extra good coupons and free produce when our grocery money was low. A big box of “samples” of Personal Products on the very day we ran out of toilet tissue.
The little ways that God used to provide for our needs is endless. It proved to us over and over again that while our perspectives are limited, God is never limited in any way.
Possible
“With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).
God can provide for rent and food when it seems impossible. God can multiply the little that we have and make it into enough for our needs.
God may allow hard times. It has never been promised that we won’t have troubles in this life. But hard days don’t last forever, and we are promised that God is faithful and true. After two and a half years of struggling, our days of unemployment came to a close. With my husband’s first month on the job, the random and unexplained ways that we “just made it” each month ended, too.
Now, not every day is easy. Things still get tight, and sometimes it feels like we’ll struggle forever. But when hope flickers and I feel discouraged, I look back at those two and a half years of unemployment. I think of the ways that God provided for us. And I know everything is going to be okay.
Just exactly like God promised.
“But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).
