One phrase, spoken by my husband, tossed my world upside down.
I was a young mom who spent my days caring for our daughter and managing our home while my husband went to work. Were our roles to reverse, there was no way I could ever earn enough to support us.
In other words, my daughter and I were completely dependent on my husband.
Or so I thought.
It took a major shift for me to realize who was really holding us. And to rest in Him.
But back then, all I could see was what lay before me. My husband’s income came a certain way. We paid our bills, and everything went according to plan.
Until he shook things up.
One evening, Steve came home late and tired. Between his long commute, crazy hours, and ever-increasing stress, he lived perpetually exhausted. “I’m quitting my job,” he said.
“I’m quitting my job,” he said.
I stared at him. “Where will you work?”
“I don’t know. Home Depot?”
Before I could ask the frantic questions pinging through my brain, he said, “And we’re moving.”
By this time, I started to wonder if he’d lost his mind. I feared my hard working, persevering, provider husband was crumbling.
I probably would’ve started crying or screaming if I hadn’t been so stunned. Or perhaps God held my tongue because, well, He knew what lay ahead.
All I could see was the crisis in front of me.
Over the next few weeks, God and I had some highly-emotional conversations, most of which involved me begging Him to intervene.
Fast forward a few months; we prepared to put our home on the market. By now, my husband had begun to talk with career headhunters, so I had a little hope. But we were. Selling. Our. House. With nowhere to go. And Steve was determined to quit his job.
One afternoon, I was outside working in our yard, praying, when I sensed God saying to me, “Submit.”
Ouch. Um, did I hear you God? Because I’m pretty sure my husband’s lost it.
“Submit.”
God must’ve done something mighty powerful in me that day, because I did. And two months later, we packed up our van, handed our house keys to our realtor, and headed to Louisiana, where we thought and hoped a job was waiting.
Steve got the call that afternoon. The job was his. Our house sold the very next day, for full asking price. And because I surrendered to God, even when everything I saw told me to do otherwise, my husband and I grew closer.
God had a plan all along—a solution we couldn’t see. And He wanted me to trust not in my husband or his job, but instead, in Him.
I remember this time whenever I think of the Israelites as they were fleeing Egypt. Trapped by soldiers on one side and the sea on the other, they thought they were doomed. But “[God’s] road led through the sea, [His] pathway through the mighty waters—a pathway no one knew was there” (Ps. 77:19 NLT).
When I face a crisis, I can get so stuck in how I think things should go, but God’s aid can, and often does, come unexpectedly. His method of providing may change, but His character as the Provider never will. He’s calling each of us to trust in Him, not our job, or our spouse, or our savings account or friends.
What are you facing right now? How might focusing on who God is, the promises He’s made in Scripture, and His never-failing love for you bring you peace as you weather life’s uncertainties?
(This first appeared on the Wholly Loved Ministries' website.)
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