Keep your eyes on Him

My husband works in the oil and gas industry, and sometimes the work for him is out of state. Other times he has local work, and other times he isn't working at all for a while. The last time my guy worked was right before Christmas 2023, then he was off until this past April. During those long winter months I prayed that God would provide work for my husband. I was very specific in my prayers though. I prayed that the kind of work he would get would be local, or close enough to home that he would be able to come back home every night. I prayed from the heart, and because at the time he was home everyday, cooking and cleaning and being such a blessing on my life. I could focus on school and work.

I tried to focus on God, but I found myself distracted by my husband and all the little things I let annoy me about him and his lack of a walk with God. I'm just being honest y'all. I would get annoyed because he wasn't praying or reading his Bible, all the things I was lacking in my own walk with the Lord. God has a way of humbling us and I was about to learn that the hard way.

So, it is around the middle of March and I'm still praying for the sanctification of my husband. I'm still praying for work for him, and I'm doing all this from the wrong heart posture. I was frustrated with my husband and with God for working in him the way I thought He should. Then one day my husband gets a call from his boss. The details of the call went as such "There's work out in Utah for you if you want it.", my husband proceeded to say "I do but I have to talk to my wife about it first". I was touched that He considered me in this decision. I immediately told him that we needed to pray about this first before making a decision. This came from a place of praying for local work on his behalf.

I persisted in asking the Lord if this opportunity was from Him to keep the door open and if it was not from Him to close the door. All that meant was if God ordained this journey for my husband then he would indeed be going to Utah. If it wasn't of God the trip would be cancelled. Well, what do you think happened? If you guessed that my husband accepted the job because God was very clearly in it, then yes, you would correct. He took the job, mostly because we need the money at this point in time. But I knew there was something more to this endeavor.

My man was set to leave at the first of April. I kept praying that this trip would be canceled but it never was. Then I started to feel some type of way toward God. Now this is the part of an average story where most people (nonbelievers) would just get bitter and give up on God altogether. I'm not about that life. I decided to go on a walk instead. I walked for a few days in a row before he left for Utah, and in these walks I talked to God. I was very real and raw with Him. I let Him know that I was upset in His choice of location for my husband. I mean I specifically prayed for my husband to have work closer to home and God decides to send him to Utah for 2 months?! So I asked Him why.

God, in His kindness and mercy simply stated "I'm sending him away so you can be with Me". Naturally this didn't make sense to me so my Abba reassures me that although things will be difficult (and they have been), I need to keep my eyes on Him. When He said that to me I broke down in tears. See, God wanted me to Himself, and He feels this way about all His children. God knew that if my husband stuck around I would lose more and more time spent with my first love, Him. He did this as an act of love and kindness because I am precious to Him and I needed to increase my faith in Him. He feel this way about you too. You are precious to God and He loves you, He will give people in exchange for you (Isaiah 43:4). At first glance I didn't understand what that verse meant but now I do. It means He will get others out of the way to get you all to Himself because you mean that much to Him. Now that's not to say my husband isn't equally as important, he is, and I choose to believe that I needed to get out of God's way so He could reach my husband as well.

As the challenges of life come our way, we need to be diligent in keeping our eyes on Jesus. Scripture says we are to keep our minds on things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2 NKJV). This means when things get hard, don't focus on the problem, focus on the One who can bring you peace through the problem. Don't focus on the circumstance, focus on the One who can literally move mountains if we ask Him to. Focus on the One who literally disarmed the powers of sin and death at the resurrection. He is who can turn our graves into gardens and give us beauty from the ashes. He is the One carrying me through the next 4 weeks until my sweet husband comes home. He is the One increasing my faith every single day because I choose to keep my eyes on Him.

A word of advice before I end this post. God may not always change your situation but He will change the way you see your situation and He will give you peace through it if you let Him. I pray this sets someone free today.