Difficult days

Yesterday we had to make a difficult announcement in church- we had to let two of our great staff members go because of the tough economic days we are in right now. It doesn't make it any easier that other churches have had to do the same thing, but it is a reality that people are giving less to the church and that has affected what we must do....it has affected these two families.
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I know that God will provide for each of us, and he does, but choices like these are really hard to make because they affect the lives of people you work with. This same thing is happening in our business culture as well. The economy is in a downturn and things are tough. People are scared. Times like this are great for Christians because we are forced to stop trusting ourselves and really trust God.
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Trusting God....what an interesting thing in a person's life. It doesn't happen for most of us until we are forced into it by our situations, and then we will get on our knees and ask for help. It's the very place we should be all the time, but in our culture we are so self reliant it takes a time like this to make us God dependent. I wish we were more dependent on him than we are, but our society has created a culture that is so self reliant they rarely ever pray because they can take care of things themselves, thank you very much. And yet, that asking for our daily bread is the very kind of dependent life God wants us to live. How many have done that in recent years? How many have asked, "Lord, would you provide what we need for food today?" Instead, in most homes in America the cry goes out, "Mom, what's for dinner?" We are indeed blessed, or are we? We have so much we don't need to ask for God's provision. We have missed the opportunity to see God work in our daily supply. Bart Simpson's prayer for dinner is the prayer of our day, "Lord, thanks for nuthin'. We bought all this stuff ourselves."
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But now, in this time, there is a sense again of our need for him. So, in the midst of difficult days I'm excited to see what God will do in our lives. It will be great to once again see faith and dependence on God for all we need become part of our lives. I love a short passage in Proverbs, it speaks to this very thing. Let me close these thoughts with those two verses:
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Pro 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own

understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He will make your paths straight.

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