Many years ago, when we were on deputation, I worked as a manager for a company that sold cellphones. While I was there, the company initiated a 401K savings program for their employees. They brought people in to explain the different options, and told us that the company was going to match part of what we gave so that we could save money. I remember joining up with the program, and being excited about watching my few dollars, grow into a million dollars someday … SMILE.
I only worked for the company about a year and a half before we launched out as full-time missionaries to the Deaf. Needless to say, I did not reach that million dollar mark I was hoping for in the beginning. However, I did find riches beyond that 401K program. The day I went in to the office of the owner of the company to tell him of my plan to stop working for him (two months later), he gave me a stern warning. He said, “Jim, you know you are about to make some serious money here with our company. Have you thought this through? How are you going to pay your bills?”
I looked across his desk and said, “God did not put me on the earth to sell cell phones. I don’t know exactly how it is going to happen, but I know that God is going to provide for our needs.” That conversation happened in March of 2001, and God has been faithful for these seventeen-plus years! Today I read, “Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help” (Psalm 146:3). “Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God. Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever” (Psalm 146:5-6).
My earthly boss had provided a job that helped me to support our family while we were on deputation, but he never made a heaven … or an earth … or a sea … or the things that are in the sea. I have noticed that I depend far too much on the things I can see today (on the princes; and the sons of men), and not nearly enough on God. It’s an easy trap to fall into. We tend to trust the things and people we can see, but we need to look to the heavens, and to the incredible nature around us, and to the oceans and the wonders that are happening under the water once in a while.
God’s hand is obvious all around us. The evidence of His power can be seen in our lives, and others we know every day. Today I want to encourage you to trust the Lord with me. Let’s determine today that we will focus on Him, and what He can do, and not on the “things” around us.