Jehovah Jireh

The Lord provides.

Just one more way in which I know that God is real is that He provides, He performs the miraculous. The skeptic may say that what happened was a series of coincidences and/or the result of hard work, but, I don't believe that. The LORD chose to favor me,for whatever reason, and, like the Sparrow and the lilies of the field, I will not go without.

Here's the story. My wife got laid off in April. We received unemployment, but, that expired in October and our extension has not been approved yet. I'm in school and work part time, but it's not enough to cover even our basic expenses. My wife supplements her unemployment income with a part time job while seeking full time work, which is extremely hard to come by. With unemployment, we made it, but it was close.

When it expired, we wondered how we'd make our rent.  We were well short and we knew our small income wouldn't provide us opportunity to pay our rent and other bills and still be able to put food on the table and gas in the car. We prayed, asked God for wisdom and a miracle and the Lord provided... at the last possible moment.

The first step, my wife took extra work. This work wasn't normal work, we finished praying, and not a minute or two later, the phone rang with extra work. This was a blessing, later, one of my clients decided to up my weekly workload, bringing in a few extra dollars of consistent income. I also remembered at this time that I had a client who needed three articles written that I'd forgotten about since school started again. I called the client, asked if they still needed the articles. They sad they did, I wrote them in an hour and got a few more extra dollars. Two other short term clients called to bring in a couple hundred more dollars.

The dogs were out of food. A family friend had really nice dog food that their dog was allergic too,  so, they gave it to us. $53  bag of food, almost full. Another blessing. Our car headlight, which had been out for weeks, suddenly started working again.

But we were still short.

I had a job interview at my school for an editorial position. The job was sent my way by a professor who thought of me when she saw it, sent it my way and wrote me a glowing letter of reference. We found things we thought we'd lost that we ended ups selling for a little grocery money. Still, Rent came due on November 1st, and we were short. Our apartment gives us a 5 day grace period before a $400 late fee kicks in. We had a few days to see what else would happen. I began selling my books via paypal and made a a few sales. I cashed in some of my survey sites, a few more dollars. We were inching our way to a rent payment.

These may seem like basic, simple things, but they're not things that presented themselves until after we asked God for wisdom and provision. The blinders fell off our eyes and our needs were met, through a combination of gifting and hard work.

We decided to swallow our pride and borrow.We were able to borrow, and the only reason we were able to borrow from that person was because of a blessing bestowed on them. Otherwise, we'd be out of luck. We were still short. Friday night, the second, my phone rings. A client I thought I'd lost called and decided to retain my services once again. Regular income, no overhead. This was a blessing.

Still, we were inches short. On the morning of the fourth, we drafted a letter to our landlord telling him we would be unable to pay our rent on time and asking for an extension to avoid eviction. We sent it. Sunday night, the night before our last possible chance to pay our rent on time without incurring a late fee, we got a phone call. Someone was going to gift us enough money to cover our rent and have money left over for a few bills and groceries until our next round of money comes through.

God chose to shine on us and provide for us. I've never felt closer to Him. I've never had a lot of money, but this is the first time I feel like things will get better. It won't be like this forever, and God will provide for me as long as I keep myself dependent on Him.

I do believe this was the result of God providing through various means. There are too many coincidences and uncanny opportunities for me to chalk this up as random chance.

So, Thank you Jehovah Jireh, for bestowing your blessings on me and my little family.