my God is a God who PROVIDES!!

the Lord has been doing some AWESOME things in my life that i would like to share with you!! He is SO GOOD!! brace yourself, cause it's a long story!!

so as everyone knows our economy right now is not so great, and everyone across the board has been making cut backs for the past 3-4 months, including businesses. back in the end of October/early November i had heard through my boss that our company was going to be making some cut backs and that they would be starting in my department. for those of you who don't know what i do, i work as a receptionist at Lube-Tech (it's a lubrication & fuel company). anyways at that time my boss told me that i would need to prepare a list to present to our department head about my duties and responsibilities, so they could review them. once i heard that news, Scott & i really started to believe and speak favor over me that my position and that i would not be laid off. being the receptionist, i was on the lower end of the totem poll, and it would be easy for them to replace me with the person who covers me for lunch and breaks since she knows my job already. the devil really tried to get me in fear about the situation, but in my heart i had peace and knew that no matter what God would provide for me. my flesh kept telling me to go look for a new job and start applying at other places, but something in my spirit kept telling me that was not the right path and to stay faithful to where the Lord has placed me for now.

now fast forward to the first Monday in December, in the morning i got pulled into a meeting with my entire department and found out that they had let my friend Connie(who was my backup for my breaks) go and that they had rearranged my department entirely, but that for the most part the positions at our building would stay the same (our company has 4 buildings in the twin cities). i was so devastated for my friend who has been let go, because i knew her situation, and it was sad to see my only fellow Christian in the workplace get booted out the door. once this happened, i felt mixed in my emotions because for the time i felt safe, but i knew that it would only be a matter of time before more changes would be made within the company again, and that didn't put me at ease. i just continued believing God for favor, and in my spirit i had complete peace that no matter what happened that He would make a way for me.

so, that brings us last week on Thursday morning. when i walked into the office to start the day i noticed that things were a bit more tense then usual, and i wasn't quite sure what to make of it. one of my coworkers walked up to me and said "have you checked your emails this morning?" i had no being that i just walked in the door, and she said "oh well you definitely will see some interesting things!" when i logged into my email there were 2 emails from people in other departments saying how much they will miss the company and the people they have worked with, and that it had been a great time. i was really shocked by this especially since one of them had been with the company for 10+ years! shortly after that, another friend of mine walked up to my desk and said, "i know it's going to my last day today. i have a meeting with my department head in the next few minutes, and they have just laid off 2 other people in the warehouse, and i know i'm next" sure enough within 20 minutes he was out the door and laid off. i was utterly shocked! however, the layoffs didn't end there! they pulled in 2 more people who had also been with the company for years and let them know that they were also going to be laid off. literally this all happened in just a few short hours. needless to say everyone in our company was on the edge of their seat wondering if they too would be called into the dreaded office where they would be laid off.

at about 11 that morning the HR manager came up to my desk and asked to speak with me in her office for a few minutes, to which of course i said yes. as we were walking back to her office i thought "this is it, they are letting me go" but oddly enough in my spirit i had complete and total peace. when we got to her office she said, "don't worry i have good news for you." the company had indeed decided to put someone else in my position, but they all like me and my work, and didn't want to lose me to another company, so they wanted to offer me a position at our st. paul office in our customer service department, which is a PROMOTION for me!!!! it really took me a second to process what was going on, in the midst of all the layoffs they were making all morning long, letting people who had been working there for 10+ years, they wanted to PROMOTE me to a bigger position and PAY ME MORE!!!!!!!! TALK ABOUT THE FAVOR OF GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that entire day i was so overwhelmed with the goodness of God! He is faithful to provide for me no matter what the economy looks like, or how bleak a situation is, it DOES NOT MATTER, because He is BIGGER than all of that and always finds a way!!! what really amazed me was how when all these changes were being made and i was not sure about my future, He gave me peace in abundance while He worked out my promotion! what an awesome testimony of His greatness! i have only been faithful to my little job as a receptionist, but my faithfulness to that job mixed with the favor of God made a way for me to get promoted without really having to lift a finger!! PRAISE GOD FOR HIS GOODNESS!!!

i just want to encourage any of you that may be feeling the effects of what the situation in our world and economy is like right now, to just continue to be faithful to whatever it is that God is having you do, no matter how minimal it seems, you can trust that while you continue to do that, He is working out BIG THINGS for you!!! it's good to know HIM!!