I had come to the end of what I could possibly bear.
It had been a year and five months without a job and seemingly no prospects of getting one soon, a wedding to prepare for without any money, still living with my sister, and discouraged.
I sat at the edge of the bed and let tears flow down my face as I thought about all that had happened and how it seemed that God's word to me had failed. I remember crying out to God in my desperation and telling Him I had come to the end of what i could bear. That I would rather die than face the shame anymore.
The problem was that I knew enough not to contemplate taking my own life, and God didn't seem interested in ending it for me.
As I sat and prayed, God softly spoke to my heart and asked "what i had in my hand?" The story of the widow woman whose husband had died and left a huge debt that she could not pay came to my mind(2 Kings 4). It was like a light bulb switched on inside my head. The impression I had was that I had prayed but if i could still trust God enough to release what I had to him that he would bless me. You see it was a question of "Can you still trust me, despite all you have been through?" I had very little money left in my account and I felt that God wanted me to give that away. I had a clear impression of Two Pastors I was to give it to. One was Pastor E. A. Adeboye and the other was the Pastor of the church I attended. To be honest with you the sum involved is just to embarrassing to give to them but I just felt I had to obey God.
I made a bank draft for Pastor Adeboye and went to a branch of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, and gave it to the Church Secretary. I guess she must have been embarrassed at the sum and was a bit reluctant to accept but I pleaded with her to take it. Promising to return if it was rejected(Thank God it was not).
What was left in the account was so small that I put it in a white envelope to give to my Pastor to conceal how much it was. I took it to midweek service that day and when I saw my Pastor the realization of how ridiculous what I was about to do hit me. What was left was far more embarrassing than what I had given earlier and to think I had to give it to him in person! I didn't want to give it to my Pastor. There was just no way I could disrespect him like that! I suddenly developed cold feet. I went to the midweek service with that money in my pocket and by then all the conviction had left me. I just couldn't go through with it, I concluded.
As I sat in the service that evening, still struggling within, my Pastor came to the pulpit and preached a message that hit at the struggle I was having and even gave an example of giving to God even when he tells you to give a certain amount of money.(now the amazing thing was that the "certain amount" of money he mentioned was the exact money I had in the envelop to give him!). At that point I gave up and agreed to obey God even if I looked like a fool for doing so.
After the service I went into his office, scared still but I knew I had to go through with it. I explained to him why I had come and proceeded to give him the money in the envelope apologetically. To my surprise, he understood, took it and prayed for me.
After I did this, the following week. I had a call from where I had attended an interview(but was rejected because I was "over qualified" and they had a policy not to under employ, honestly I did not mind even if they gave me a job there as a cleaner) and was told to meet some people who where interested in setting up an office here in Nigeria and needed someone to help set it up.
I met with my current employers at a pool side at Eko Hotel and was employed by the end of the week. I didn't have to alter my CV or lie about the circumstances that I lost my job.
The salary matched the salary i earned on my last job in the bank and my second salary paid the expenses for my traditional marriage, the first I gave to those two Pastors.
God indeed is a present help in time of trouble!!!
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