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I was distressed in the school of a recommendation of my homeroom teacher who had told me at my junior-high school graduation that I could make use of my characteristic in that high school. Although I made some friends in school, my school grades were increasingly dropping, and I joined the club activity of music which I didn’t enjoy. In the meantime, attendance of a weekly worship service alone brought me joy. I spent time at school on worrying, and back at home kept myself in the house. However, I was able to go to church every week without fail. On top of that, God spoke to me in the worship service.
I Can’t Graduate! I Can’t Do Anything.! I’m No Good!
“I will Work Through Your Weakness.”
Though I Was Told to Give Thanks ・・・
It was God who provided me with a job. Looking back on the past, the job had been provided since my junior high school days (precisely speaking, since the time before I was born). In the spring of 2005, the third year of my high school, I was distressed not having been able to decide my future course. It is because I had had a depression since the beginning of my high school days, resulting in a tendency of self pity as one of its symptoms.
I was distressed in the school of a recommendation of my homeroom teacher who had told me at my junior-high school graduation that I could make use of my characteristic in that high school. Although I made some friends in school, my school grades were increasingly dropping, and I joined the club activity of music which I didn’t enjoy. In the meantime, attendance of a weekly worship service alone brought me joy. I spent time at school on worrying, and back at home kept myself in the house. However, I was able to go to church every week without fail. On top of that, God spoke to me in the worship service, telling me to give complete thanks in any situation. I couldn’t accept that right away because I was deeply hurt. I was the poorest among the club members. I was ranked toward the bottom in school grades. I was not good at exercise either. I thought what’s in the world there was I could do well, and so blamed myself again.
God told me to give thanks even for that. Since that time, I had spent much time on thanksgiving prayers. I gave thanks for one thing after another, saying with tears, “I thank you for not being able to have good grades. I thank you for being a poor guitar player. I thank you for disliking myself. I thank you for not being able to do things right”
Although I did so, I came back from school, depressed. I had poorer grades, below 40 marks in every subject. I said to my self, “I was no good. I wouldn’t be able to graduate. I can’t do anything right!!” I cried out, and finally was led astray by Satan and came near to jumping from the sixth floor of my apartment.
Let God of the Things You Have Held Onto.
However, in the meantime, God spoke to me again, saying, “I will work through your weakness.” I was encouraged by this word and gave thanks thoroughly for everything. As a result, I was able to graduate. I had only the two failing subjects of English which was good enough for graduation, although I used to be no good with all subjects.
Even after graduation, I had a remaining problem of a future course. I couldn’t go to higher education because I had a narrow passing of grades for the past three years just enough to make it for the graduation. Moreover, I had to consider the financial situation of my family, etc.
At that time, I was completely confident on God who helped me many times and who had nothing impossible with anything. In the worship service of the week, a prophecy was given, saying, “you should let go of the things you had held onto, and that you should give them over to God.” However, I didn’t pay much attention to it. I tried to take an entrance examination of a college, but I failed. At that point I was clearly made aware of a thing: it was to me that that prophecy had been spoken.
Until then, I expected God would help me again, and thought I had nothing to worry about. However, it was not the will of God to go to college. Another thing is that I thought not going to college meant a defeat. I repented of that idea of mine, and gave thanks to God for a failed exam.
A Job Decided Instantly for Me!
After that, I totally gave thanks for a future direction in prayer, and was shown to find a job. I prayed a prayer of thanksgiving with my family, and went to Hellowork, a job assistance center by the recommendation of my school. Then a person in charge told me that a job was available just to suit me. That job was related with computers which I had learned in high school.
I had been in a department of information science, not in a regular one. To my surprise, the person in charge was a friend of the president of that company and things progressed in leaps and bounds. The following day I already went to see a working environment of that job. The next day after that, it went so speedily that paper from school couldn’t be ready for me for that job. Toward the end of the job interview, the president said to me abruptly, “I’ll tell you now because it’s no use telling you later. You’re hired!” I had failed in two subjects of English and had all the subjects marked below the average grades. I had got the grades just to make it for the graduation. In spite of that, I was hired on the very day of the interview. I got a job in just three days’time although I started a job search from as late as the month of March. God surely worked for me and I praised God.
However, I never imagined I could get a job so soon. I had just applied for a Merlin U.S.team which was to be sent at the end of March. I timidly told the president that I couldn’t come to work on the 1st of April the initiation because I wouldn’t be able to return Japan, and without hesitation he okayed. I praised God one more time, and repented of my unbelief.
Later, even many days didn’t pass since I started to work, but I was appointed as a store manager of Internet Shopping Big Site! Currently I am a manager of the second store! My job includes a translation of the trade e-mail from overseas, the English translation into Japanese. I was poorest with the English subject and failed in that two times in high school. This is a miracle performed by God!! If you are troubled with your future course, ask God and listen to Him first. God is alive and working. Seek God for His will. God does the best, and speaks to us precisely. Don’t give up, abiding in the Lord. Just as He helped me, H will help anybody.
Written by Takuya Yoshida in Osaka
Reprinted from the issue No. 408 & 409 of Apr.l 1 & Apr. 8, 2007 of the Mikoe Weekly News Press. All rights reserved.
“Prayer of thanksgiving” or “complete thanksgiving (prayer)” has the power to change a person’s life as you can see in the testimony written by Brother Yoshida. A living, working God tells us to “give thanks in all circumstances”(1 Thessalonians 5:18) and through prayer of thanksgiving we can see God will work for a practical matter like a job search.
God is Love.