Prayer Changes Things
Wow - I haven't written a blog since May. That is since shortly after commencing work again! Being a working mum is a busy life!
I have a good news story to tell from my work. My manager wanted me to do a training course that will enable me to do a certain type of assessment with clients in my work. The course is run by an international company, called WorkHab. Looking on their website all their courses in the world are run on a weekend - Saturday and Sunday. I explained to my manager (who is a Christian) that I cannot do a course for my work that is run on Saturday, due to the belief that God has asked me in His 10 Commandments to keep the Sabbath holy. He asked me whether there was some "clause in the contract" that would give me exemption to do this course! Well it's just not like a business contract! I made it clear that I could not do the course on Saturdays. He stated that WorkHab only ever run their courses on a weekend - Saturday and Sunday, so there was no way to not do it on a Saturday.
I told him I would pray that they might run a course that does not involve Saturday. I found out that the company I work for had asked WorkHab to run a course just for our staff. So I explained my reasoning to the man organising it in our company and appealed to him to ask if WorkHab would make an exception to their usual practice and run the course for us on a Sunday and Monday. He stated that as WorkHab only ever run their courses on a weekend, it may be out of his hands.
I also emailed my request directly to WorkHab, and in their response, they stated that they only ever run the courses on a weekend, as that is what people seem to want.
We of course prayed a lot that God would bring a willingness on those organising the course to run the course on a Sunday and Monday.
In situations like this I've often claimed Proverbs 21:1 as a promise that God can impress and guide the hearts of those in authority positions:
"The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will."
And another appropriate promise in these situations is Isaiah 45:2
"I will go before thee, and make the crooked places straight:"
Well - God is good - I will be attending the course on Sunday and Monday October 7th and 8th!!
It paid to ask questions, explain my position and remain firm / no compromise - but most importantly to pray to our Heavenly Father, trusting that the hearts of all men are in His hands, for Him to influence as He sees best.
I have an example and inheritance from my Grandfather about remaining true to his convictions on the Sabbath, and that had a widespread influence in Australia (here is an extract from something I recently wrote about his history):
My grandparents, Lindsay and Vera Cameron began reading and studying, and accepted the teachings of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. They lived out near Cowra, NSW, and in 1939 my grandfather got a labouring job with the newly established Soil Conservation Station. Because of his conviction that he should keep the seventh-day Sabbath, he would not work on Saturday. He asked the management if he could try to get through his work in 5 days. When his workmates saw that he could do this, they also wanted to do a 5-day week, and so at that soil conservation station all the workers had a 5-day week. It then progressed to other establishments, then to head office and eventually it was gazetted in Parliament. Therefore, due to my grandfather’s conviction to keep the Sabbath, he is responsible for the public service having a 5-day working week.
May God bless you all as you make firm decisions about your beliefs in whatever situation you are in.
