When the layoffs started, she was terrified that she was going to be fired. First, it was in one department, then another department, and then another department. As she watched all of her good friends lose their jobs, the day came when my sister Emily called me because she had just gotten the news that she had lost her job. She had worried about losing her job for almost a year and she lived in constant dread. In her mind, it was the worst thing that could happen. She was single, living in Texas, and she had no support system outside of moving back in with my parents. This is what she said to me a week or two later:

"When the bottom fell out and the worst happened, I got up, made myself a cup of coffee, sat outside, and the birds were still singing. The wind was still blowing, and the sun was still shining."

She later said it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be because somehow when the worst happened, the world kept on turning. It was a good lesson for her, for me, and I wonder if it's a good lesson for you. I think a lot of us have had a year or a year and a half where a lot of our worst situations have seemed to happen all at once. I'm getting your emails on a daily basis more than I have ever received before of you asking for prayer and telling me about this and this person you lost and how the pandemic has affected your lives and your jobs.

Here's what I want to encourage you with if you are living in that state of fear. In Romans 8:15, it says:

"The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” - Romans 8:15

You belong to God and God is bound by His Word to provide for your needs. So what I want to remind you of today is that it will be okay. Not because I say so, but because God says so. Not only will it be okay, but you also have the assurance that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him who have been called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:38) Eventually someday for all of us, the bottom will fall out, but you have to know that God is there to catch you.