What to Do When You've Lost Your Job

On the morning of July 24th, 2023, Keith Mitchell

arrived at the manufacturing plant where he managed health,

safety, and security. And before he had been there long, his

supervisor asked to meet with him. He already knew the company

that had purchased their division months earlier had been

making changes. When his supervisor told him it was his

last day and that his position had been eliminated, Keith said

something unusual happened. He felt at ease. He took his

documentation, drove home, and started applying for jobs. Over

the months, he applied to more than 100 positions, one

in-person interview, and four phone calls, nothing else. He

had been keeping a folder on his phone called Current Petitions

to God, where he wrote his prayers as if they had already

been answered. What he was doing was following Habakkuk's

instructions to write the vision and make it plain. He kept

writing, and he kept applying. By January 2024, he and his wife

had started receiving what he described as multiple clear

signs from God. Stop applying. Just trust. So, he stopped.

We'll come back to what happened in March of 2024. But

first, welcome to Daily Devotions for Busy Lives. I'm

Bart Leger. If your income stopped recently and you're not

sure what comes next, stay with me. I've stood where you're

standing. Back in the early 80s, I lost a good-paying job, and

for a few days, I had no idea how we were going to make ends

meet. Unlike some, my wait was pretty short. The very next week,

I found another job that paid more and offered better benefits

than the one I'd lost. We never went without. I know that's not

everyone's story, and I've watched plenty of people wait a

lot longer than a week. Keith among them. But I learned

something in those few days that stuck with me. The God who

provided before is the same God standing in the gap right now.

Losing a job hits more than your bank account. It shakes how you

see yourself. A lot of who we think we are gets tied to what

we do, and when the work goes, it can feel like a piece of you

went with it. The mornings feel strange without the thing that

used to the day meaning. You wake up with nowhere to be, and

somewhere in there, the questions start circling around

the one that asks what you did wrong, whether it was somehow

your fault. On top of it, you don't know how long the

in-between will last, and the not knowing wears on you as much

as the empty paycheck does. Here's what an old man wrote

near the end of a long life, looking back over everything he

had seen God do. Listen to Psalm 37, 25.

That's King David, writing as an old man with a whole lifetime

behind him, including the lean stretches. His testimony is that

he never once saw God walk away and leave his people to starve.

That isn't a promise that the next paycheck lands on your

schedule, or that the provision looks the way you pictured it.

It usually shows up in a way you didn't expect from a direction

you weren't necessarily watching from. But it shows

God doesn't waste it. The stretch with no job and no

answer yet is not dead time to him.

Some of the deepest growth of your life can happen in the

months you would never have chosen when the noise drops away

and you're left depending on him. Here's what you do while you

wait. You keep doing the practical work. Keep applying.

The phone calls, all of it. Keith applied to over 100 jobs.

Faith didn't make him passive. But you hold it all a little

more loosely, trusting that God can open a door you may never

have even knocked on. On March 18, 2024, Keith's phone showed a

new email from a recruiter he had never even contacted. She

found his resume online and reached out because she thought

his experience matched the position her company was

advertising. Of the more than 100 applications Keith had

already sent out over eight months, he had never even

applied to this one. He described the job that followed

as a direct answer to the prayer he had written in that phone

folder. God, thank you for a position where the compensation

and benefits are beyond what I could have planned for myself.

Psalm 37, 25 says, I have never seen the godly abandoned or

their children begging for bread. David wrote that from the other

side of a long stretch of waiting. Keith found it to be

true on his end too. didn't come through one of the 100

applications he submitted. It came through the one God lined

up without him. Here's today's challenge. If you're in that

in-between right now, do two things today. First, take one

practical step toward work, whether that's sending an

application or making a call. Then, before you close the

laptop, write down a prayer the way Keith did, as if it's

already answered. Something like,

Father, you see the ones who are listening who have lost a job

and don't know what's next. You know the fear that comes when

the income stops and the mornings go empty without

seemingly having any meaning.

your and you won't start now. Provide for them in your way and

in your timing and settle their hearts while they wait. Use this

in-between to do something in them that only this kind of

stretch could do. And remind them that their worth was never

in the job they lost. In Jesus' name, amen. This podcast runs on

the generosity of listeners just like you. If Daily Devotions for

Busy Lives has encouraged you, would you consider supporting it

with a one-time gift or becoming a monthly supporter? Every

contribution keeps these devotions coming every week. You

can give at dailydevotionsforbusylives.com

slash support. Thank you so much. Thanks for joining me on Daily

Devotions for Busy Lives. Remember, the God who has never

abandoned His people isn't about to start with you and His

provision is already on the way, even if you can't see it yet.

Come back next time for more encouragement to help you live

grounded in God's truth. Until then, God bless and have a great

day.