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Key Bible Verse: You have shown your people desperate times; you have given us wine that makes us stagger (Psalm 60:3).
Bonus Reading: Hebrews 12:7-11

When I spoke to a Glasgow audience several years ago—where 24 percent were unemployed— I urged listeners not to blame Margaret Thatcher or the government for their plight. "Forget the intermediaries," I said. "Third parties may be to blame, but for you to blame them is a futile, bitterness-producing mistake."

Instead, I urged my out-of-work friends to consider their circumstances as from the hand of God. I didn't say to "blame God," but "accept your circumstances as if they came from God" —a big difference.

One thing God does by allowing us to lose our job is to mold our character. So we should ask, "What part of my character most needs work?"

If we're suddenly laid off, we can say, "I thought this was a great job, but God has something better for me. Now I'll find out what that is."

Some superior may be at fault for your plight, but if you are a believer in Christ, nothing comes to you that doesn't first pass through God's hands. Consider it as His discipline to help you become more like Jesus Christ.

—Luis Palau in Where Is God When Bad Things Happen?

Lord, thank You that You have or will direct me to a job that satisfies because it matches the way You made me.

Adapted from: Where Is God When Bad Things Happen? (Galilee/Doubleday, 1999/2000)

For your convenience, Where Is God When Bad Things Happen? is available in the ChristianityToday.com bookstore.

Copyright © 2001 by the author or Christianity Today, Inc./Men of Integrity magazine.
Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Lord, thank You that You have or will direct me to a job that satisfies because it matches the way You made me.

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