Day 5 – January 5

Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.  Romans 12:12 NIV

Imagine having nothing in your savings account and next to nothing in your checking; not even enough to pay your bills for the month.  On top of that, the income you have coming in is not enough to keep you afloat the following month.  Like a hole in your boat that floods faster than you can bale, sinking seems inevitable. 

I’m sure some of you reading this know exactly what this feels like.  This is where our family was in 2012.  The small engineering company I own with Richard Paulin made enough money to live a little better than month-to-month back then, but our main client got sick, his company was going to be stagnant for at least six months.  By “our main client,” I mean approximately 90% (or more) of our business.  I get it, not the best business plan, but we were still relatively new to business ownership.

We literally had enough work to keep our doors open for about three weeks.  As my business was our family’s only source of income, that meant we had only three weeks to figure it out or our lives were going to drastically change.  It was a dark time (financially) for my wife and me, but I wasn’t going to stand idly by.  God gave me a spirit of strength, and I wasn’t going to let this take down our family.  So, I set up several meetings with mentors, other successful business leaders of faith, and close confidants.  I wasn’t asking for a hand-out; I needed advice.

One-by-one this advice came rolling in, and surprisingly, it was all the same: God made you an influential rainmaker, so use your gifts and make it rain!  There was a problem with this advice though.  In our prayer time, it felt as if God was leading both my wife and I in an opposite and much more daunting direction. We both felt led to wait; to do nothing.  Make no marketing calls, send no emails, reach out to zero of the clients I’d worked with in the past, etc.  Day after day I waited, and as the days passed, and the situation grew more dire, something counterintuitive began to take root in my spirit.

The more days that went by, I grew less and less anxious. God brought me to the point where I was content with whatever decision God made for my family’s future.  If God wanted me to change my career, then so be it.  If God wanted to revive my company, then so be it.  I was joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Eventually the phone rang on its own.  An old client had a project I designed years ago while with a previous engineering firm, but he never constructed it.  He was ready to construct and wanted me to observe and certify the site construction of a small residential neighborhood.  It wasn’t a huge job, but it meant keeping our doors open for another couple of weeks.  Through that project, I met other clients who had similar small jobs, and little by little, God breathed life back into our company.

Now, does that mean that every time you go to God in prayer, that things will go your way?  Absolutely not.  God is not a genie in a bottle.  He has answered ‘no’ to far more prayers than I can remember.  It’s not about getting what we want but getting what’s best for us.  They’re rarely the same, but trust in God to guide your life.

Heavenly Father, help us not to fret about what we bring to you in prayer but to be joyful in hope.  Help us not to pace back and forth waiting for you to answer but to be patient in affliction.  And finally, Lord, help us not to push our own agenda but to be faithful in prayer.  We give you our lives in service, and we trust you!  Amen!

Written By: Pastor Josh Bradley