Do you feel like your life has been leveled in some way?
It could be that you have lost your job, have been unemployed for months, or maybe you struggle with a loss of another kind.
If life has been hard for too long, I’m offering a story that gives some insight into what God is up to when He allows His children to struggle.
Watch the video below, or view it on Youtube at: Unemployed? Overwhelmed? What It Means When God Levels You
Scripture Verse:
Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines,
though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food,
though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior.
The Sovereign LORD is my strength;Â
he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
he enables me to go on the heights.
Interesting Biblical References to Fig Trees:
THE PROMISED LAND: Deuteronomy 8:8 describes the promised land as “a land of wheat and barley, and vines and fig-trees and pomegranates.”
HEALTH AND RESTORATION: 1 Samuel 30:11-12 mentions the medicinal value of figs: “Along the way they found an Egyptian man in a field and brought him to David. They gave him some bread to eat and water to drink. They also gave him part of a fig cake and two clusters of raisins, for he hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for three days and nights. Before long his strength returned.”
PEACE AND PLENTY: According to the American Tract Bible Society Dictionary, “It was a symbol of peace and plenty, 1 Kings 4:25 Micah 4:4Zechariah 3:10 John 1:49-51.”
Now it’s your turn to share some hope. If you have a story to share, please comment below!
Dear Kelly
Thank you for this article. I started reading your articles yesterday night. I was looking for something and I searched for it and word for word it was the article ‘ Dreaming the impossible dream’ I just had to read all that you have written ,from there.
The video could not play but still I have a burning a story of hope to share.
I have been unemployed for almost a year. Most people won’t believe this but it was time that I got unemployed.
I can say that now from where I am standing, having gone through the process of ‘why me’ ‘when Lord’ ‘why not Lord’. The faces and needs of the people that depend on me haunted me constantly. But…
I can confidently say God needed to sit me down!!!
I have a big dream,the kind that won’t let me sleep at night,that brings tears to my eyes every time I imagine how big it is and how impossible it will be. And even worse ,I could not believe when God took it away!!!. I felt so lost and so empty because I know as I live and breath that I was made for this! I tried wrecking my brain for another dream,I could not find a single thing. Depression sat in like a cloak of darkness. I could not pray and there was no job!
I gave up. I took the dream back to God. I started asking Him if it was truly mine,I asked Him for a new one. I asked Him to end my life if there was nothing else to do on earth,because I had been looking forward to this one thing!
After everything dried up, i went back to the only thing that I knew to be true..God’s Word.
I wanted answers,and the more I did the more I found myself talking with the Holy Spirit. The more I found myself understanding and growing. I calmed down. Most importantly I got to understand how God sees things in relation to how I do sometimes.
I found myself asking for the heart of Jesus. Because I knew without a doubt that what I had to do was never gonna be possible without God
working,feeling,talking through me. Compassion,not as I knew it,but as God breaths it.
It seemed like asking for the impossible over the impossible. Over the months,I had stopped brooding over ‘the dream’. I had let it go. Because everytime I even let my mind go there my heart followed and I knew where that will lead me; on my knees crying my eyes out and asking God if it was true..
And every time I looked at the dream,it seemed bigger than before. I always felt like it was growing and leaving me behind ( Why does God do that?,why make the dream so big,when tiny little unemployed me is helplessly helpless?!)
Until yesterday…
A friend came over to my place and told me that her sister had been beaten up by the father of her children. A man we all thought was ‘good’.
That is when it all came flooding out.
-The reason I was born
The reason I have people living in all corners of my house
-The reason my heart breaks when other people look the other way
-The reason I can’t sleep at night trying to come up with ways of sheltering christian families that are going through the horrendous ,most painful situations.
-The reason why I had to sit down and listen !
-Why I had to be unemployed.
It all came back 7 fold! Right there and there I knew how important it was that I do what I needed to.
Some people won’t agree,but if you only knew the kind of person I am,you would understand that some of us need more ‘sit down’ time , than others. I needed this.
As you can tell,there is more to this story.
I hope to encourage anybody who is unemployed right now. It is not in God’s plan that we be unhappy. Whatever is happening right now,He knows and has an invested interest in it. You just need to ask why. You will be surprised what the answer will be.Get Him involved in your ‘unemployment situation’
Don’t be unemployed alone. The Lord wants to walk the walk with you until ‘EMPLOYMENT!’
Thank you for encouraging me
Jennifer.
Hi, Jennifer!
Wow, what a comment! I would love to hear more of your story! I can relate to everything you said.
I also agree that we should not be unemployed alone.
You seem to have such a gift of reaching out to love people in need. Yes, I’d love to hear more of your story!!
Kelly
PS: I think Youtube was down when you posted this. Maybe the video works now?
Thank you for this post – finding God in the hard times strengthens you deep down I really appreciate the word references& I enjoyed “meeting” you too Jennifer- isn’t it amazing how you search for something and can find just the perfect sisters to share the journey with and find encouragement! God is great like that 😉
The only one clear, true, persistent dream I’ve ever had was to be a wife and mom, have a safe, stable home and happy kids and a good marriage. I wanted to grow old with the person I love, I wanted to have my own used book store in a small town, and I wanted a garden. I live in one of the largest cities in the US. My marriage fell apart. The kids and I struggled, finally getting to a better place, then it all fell apart again. I lost my job, after a year of unemployment and although I prayed so hard and tried to hold our home together, a month ago I was evicted. My two kids are living in two separate places now. I am living with my mom in a tiny, cramped, cluttered house where I only have a partial bedroom for myself. Even our 3 pets are spread out over the town. I have no money, no car. And through all of this I’ve had to go through the most devastating break up since my divorce 10 years ago. I loved someone deeply, completely, and felt blessed, so blessed I thought it couldn’t be real. He turned out to be the most destructive person who has ever walked into my life. He had a large part in the losses I’m going through today. I don’t understand. My dream has always been a simple one, an important one because I grew up in an alcoholic home with chaos and pain and unhappiness. We, as kids, never felt safe or secure or even happy. My kids have had to go through even more than I did as a child, and this breaks my heart. Breaks my heart. I miss my home, having my kids with me, I miss my dogs, I miss my job, I miss feeling loved and needed by someone and having a dream to look ahead to. I miss my relationship with God because this has really broken that. I used to talk to God all the time,constantly…I don’t anymore. Not out of anger, out of fear. I’m afraid of God now. So many bad, painful things have happened in response to my prayers, I’m now afraid to pray. I wasn’t just given a dream that was taken away…..everything was taken away, and the dream seems ridiculous and small now. Unimportant. I wish I knew what to do.
I honestly am at the end of my faith….the little bit I had has been sucked out of me…..since I left the military it’s been up and down finding employment, and anytime I find an ideal situation…its taken from me, and I just keep thinking why? Why can’t I just be left alone? I know most of you will say “have more faith”. But in all seriousness I can’t even get my life off the ground because there are relevant things such as rent and evictions…I was thrown out of my apartment, my car is falling apart and I have to drive to different places everyday to avoid it being repossessed….What do you say to someone going through this? Why am I being tested now of all times? I’m….tired, I’m done I’ve…simply had enough. Just for a minute let me be successful and let me thrive to where I can *** put my life together for once…..I know my language has not been the most holy but seriously….faith? Hope? I no longer have that…..This walk….I don’t want it anymore because I can’t take it anymore….peace
I guess you can say that I’ve….thrown in the towel