For the last month God has been restoring hope in my life. Since the end of March, my focus has been somewhat skewed by the swipes the enemy has fired at my family.
Since March we have been under a constant attack which has seen our health and finances decimated by the enemy's attacks. In the last month we have seen the tunnel come to an end and the light begin to filter in again.
Daniel had to wait for the answer to his prayers for 21 days when the enemy withstood the angel carrying the answer. Sometimes we end up having to do the same.
Jesus promised that everyone who asks receives - no exceptions. Everyone. But we often find that we limit God because of where we look for the answers.
From March to early July that's what I was doing. I was looking for God to Bless my efforts. I did what looked right to me, and then asked Him to make it successful. Now don't misunderstand what I'm saying here. Sometimes we can reach a place where we are so focussed on God that this behaviour is the exact way to do it. But mostly we do our own thing, and ask God to turn it into His thing.
I realised this in mid-July, and changed my prayer. I asked Him to show me where He had planned for my growth and sustenance, and to guide me in where I should go and what I should do. It took a while for this realisation to get from my head to my heart, and then praying became easier, and answers started to come from unexpected places.
I am a white, male, able-bodied, mono-lingual Englishman living in South Africa at a time when that combination makes it hard in the natural to find employment. This is not necessarily a bad thing after the atrocities my adopted country has witnessed through the decades of Apartheid, but it makes things less friendly in a work environment than they could be. My applications were rarely even acknowledged, and when they were it was always "we are sorry, but..."
Since my heart changed, God has opened doors where I didn't expect to find them. I was blessed by a local businessman who offered me employment as an assistant manager in his business. I have been working there now for a month and finding it incredibly satisfying and fulfilling. I did feel that I should follow up on some of the other applications I had submitted, and out of the blue on following up on one application I had made weeks before I was invited to interview, follow up and aptitude tests, then offered a position with one of the largest businesses in the country! The paths have opened up for me to move there, and all since I changed my heart and started to ask God to direct my steps.
Blessings come from all sides and in many different shapes. We need to recognise that the ways that look right to us might be God's plan, but in a different route than we expect.
