God's Resume In Your Life Series

Introduction

Online encyclopedia Wikipedia.org, defines a resume as a document containing a summary or listing on relevant job experience and education, usually for obtaining an interview when seeking employment. A resume is often the first item a potential employer encounters regarding a job seeker, so it is ascribed a large amount of importance. A resume is a biography of a person’s professional life, where the individual worked, lived and describes who that person is. Your resume is an important tool that communicates all about you to a potential employer. When it does the job right, it wins you the interview. A resume does not simply provide a potential employer with the job seeker’s work history, when constructed and well written, it conveys loudly and clearly that the individual has the credentials needed to be a success in the desired position or career. A good resume works to build credibility through experience gained, while illustrating career growth over time. A resume is not a document that you create once and never update. As you gain new experience and learning, you update your resume regularly keeping it evergreen.

God Communicates His Role

The Bible states in Psalm 32:8;

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you and watch over you. (New International Version – NIV)

In this Scripture verse, God declares the things He will perform in our lives, if we let Him. He declares that He will instruct us; this implies that sometimes He will provide the direction and He expects us to follow, unquestionably. He will teach us, implying that sometimes He will help us to understand the meaning of His decisions and actions in our lives. That assures us He will give us godly wisdom. He declares that He will counsel us. This implies that He understands that sometimes we will step out on our own, but He will be there to give us advice when we ask of Him. Finally, He declares that He will watch over us. God has your back. We have nothing to be afraid of because the almighty God is watching over us. God has communicated convincingly and clearly His desired role and responsibilities in our lives. If only, there was a way for us to pause and reflect on how God delivers on His promises in our lives, especially when we face challenging situations.

God’s Resume in Your Life

Sometimes, when we face challenges in this life and the outcome appears uncertain or is not what we expected, doubt is born. Doubt keeps close company with fear and anxiety. Together they bring despair into our lives and cause our faith in God to falter. Have you ever felt like the promises fulfilled for Abraham, Elijah, Job and Jeremiah were great for them in their time, but seems like they do not translate easily to your situation? If only, there was a simple way for me to reflect on how God delivered on His promises in my life, not for David and Solomon, not for Paul and Timothy, but for me. God has led me to a simple way to reflect on His presence in my life; I would like to share with it you. Allow me to introduce you to God’s resume in your life. God’s resume in your life is a document, which you create; it contains a chronological summary or listing of relevant experiences in your life through which God was working to instruct, to teach, to counsel and to watch over you. The sole purpose of developing God’s resume in your life is to strengthen your faith in Him. Documenting God’s resume in your life is an act of praise and worship since it demonstrates to God that you have acknowledged His goodness and mercy towards you. Based on my own experience and those of others I encountered over the years, creating and maintaining a resume of God’s presence in your life, builds your faith in Him through experience gained, while illustrating your Christian growth over time. In the Book of Psalms, David penned God’s resume in his life. The Psalms show us how God instructed, taught, counseled and watched over David throughout his life, while they illustrate his Christian growth and maturity over time.

The Origin of God’s Resume in My Life

In the summer of 2002, an opportunity presented itself for me to write an article for a widely published monthly Christian magazine. The chief editor requested that the article should offer advice on careers since several of their readers had experienced recent job losses. The article I wrote was entitled, “Coping with Job Loss as a Christian.” Several weeks after that edition appeared in print, I received a call from a good friend, who lived in Rochester, NY. She mused on how I would write an article on coping with job loss, having never experienced unemployment in my 25-year professional career. I assured her that it was all divine inspiration that drove that article. Within a couple months of that conversation and for the first time in twenty-five years, I found myself unemployed. I was also facing a scheduled mortgage closing on the newly constructed home. The mortgage broker gave me a deadline of fifteen-days to find a new job or risk losing the home. I was facing a difficult financial challenge and I became anxious in my spirit. It seems as if all the inspiration I had experienced two months earlier had given way to perspiration as I was now coping with job loss. It suddenly became very clear to me, why God had put that article of job loss in my mind two months earlier; it was not only for the readers of that Christian magazine, but he looked into my future and saw that I would need all the advice I had captured in that article.