It has been almost 2 months since I graduated and I'm still not able to secure a job. I went for quite a number of interviews and have so far rejected 3 offers. Why? All the jobs offered require me to work on saturdays. I have a commitment in the 85th Boys' Brigade Company, Jurong West Secondary School on every saturday. I know I have been called by the Lord to serve the boys there. So, I'm not going to exchange that with a job, even if it gives me good salary.
Of course, after a while, I seem to get abit impatient on waiting for the Lord to bless me with a job He wants me to do. I see the openings in NTU Bioengineering Division and SIMTech as the opportunities for me to stay near NTU and Jurong West to carry on serving the people there. However, it is already 1 month plus since I went for the interviews and my applications are still pending.
Then, I realised something. God is teaching me to be patient, to "be still and know that He is God" (Psalms 46:10). The Lord spoke to me through the article below, sent by Joo Ghee as an encouragement to me. Thanks alot Joo Ghee!
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Ordering the Stops
by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
"In waiting, I waited, for the Lord" (Ps. 40:1, margin).
Waiting is much more difficult than walking. Waiting requires patience, and patience is a rare virtue. It is fine to know that God builds hedges around His people--when the hedge is looked at from the viewpoint of protection. But when the hedge is kept around one until it grows so highthat he cannot see over the top, and wonders whether he is ever to get out of the little sphere of influence and service in which he is pent up, it is hard for him sometimes to understand why he may not have a larger environment--hard for him to "brighten the corner" where he is. But God has a purpose in all HIS holdups. "The steps of a good man are ordered of the Lord," reads Psalm 37:23. On the margin of his Bible at this verse George Mueller had a notation,"And the stops also." It is a sad mistake for men to break through God's hedges. It is a vital principle of guidance for a Christian never to move out of the place in which he is sure God has placed him, until the Pillar of Cloud moves.--Sunday School Times
When we learn to wait for our Lord's lead in everything, we shall know the strength that finds its climax in an even, steady walk. Many of us are lacking in the strength we so covet. But God gives full power forevery task He appoints. Waiting, holding oneself true to His lead--this is the secret of strength. And anything that falls out of the line of obedience is a waste of time and strength. Watch for His leading.--S. D.Gordon
Must life be a failure for one compelled to stand still in enforced inaction and see the great throbbing tides of life go by? No; victory is then to be gotten by standing still, by quiet waiting. It is a thousand times harder to do this than it was in the active days to rush on in the columns of stirring life. It requires a grander heroism to stand andwait and not lose heart and not lose hope, to submit to the will of God,to give up work and honors to others, to be quiet, confident and rejoicing, while the happy, busy multitude go on and away. It is the grandest life "having done all, to stand."--J. R. Miller
