Where God Guides, God Provides

Erika Dix finds herself on an unexpected path in her career, with a beautiful phrase from Scripture to help her in her new role.  

Then the Lord will guide you always and satisfy your thirst in parched places, will give strength to your bones and you shall be like a watered garden, like a flowing spring whose waters never fail. (Isaiah 58:11) 

I have recently had many twists and turns in my life, and God has been guiding me all along the way. Sometimes when it is happening it does not seem like God is with me, but every time I look back, He has been there.  

A new role  

One example of this is that after 20 years of being a stay-at-home mom, homemaker, freelance graphic designer, and compulsory volunteer, I will be starting a new job soon. The path to this job has taken many different directions, but when I see the big picture, all of my choices have brought me to this moment.

Raising kids, working in my own business, maintaining my home and budget, and volunteering at school, church and the community made me a good candidate for through all the roles I just described. I see the connections God has given me, but I still have trouble seeing how I am going to be ready for this and how to put it all together.  

Where God guides  

On meeting with my friend and mentor to help coach me for my first “official” interview in 25 years, she left me with a beautiful phrase that has become my new mantra: "Where God guides, God provides."

This is based on Isaiah 58:11, and it lets us know that even when we are in an unknown situation, if we feel God has guided us there, He will be there to give us what we need to thrive. The difficult part is recognizing what is of God and what is of us. If it is of God, we will see the fruit of our endeavor and it will feel right, or as I like to put it, right with God.

My spiritual director shared with me recently that we cannot force fruit. I had tried for over a year to work on updating my graphic design portfolio so that I could look for a full-time position as a designer. Every time I started, something would come up that would constrict my abilities or time and I would need to put the work on hold for a while. This happened multiple times, so I decided to switch gears and start applying for different kinds of jobs. That is when my current position popped up. 

God provides  

I noticed that whenever I applied for a job online that I had only seen on a website, my application did not get very far. I decided to start asking friends if they had openings in their companies, and one friend said, “I do, and its perfect for you!” I originally had a lot of trepidation because it seemed completely different from what I had been used to, but as my friend continued to point out, most of what I had been doing for the past twenty years was listed in the job description.

God guided me to this new role, one toward which He had created a path for me. He will give us drink when we are thirsty, strength when we are weary, and we will become a never-failing garden of fruit. If I had tried to force the fruit of my design portfolio, I would not be here, about to start a job that looks rewarding as a volunteer coordinator at a hospice. I am looking forward to starting, and when a fear starts rising up, I just repeat, “Where God guides, God provides.” 

Prayer:

Lord, please continue to guide us and provide for us, even when the path we are on is unknown or unexpected.  

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Copyright 2024 Erika Dix
Images: (top) Canva; (center) copyright 2024 Erika Dix, all rights reserved.