If you’re a hard worker and do a good job, you deserve your pay; we don’t call your wages a gift. But if you see that the job is too big for you, that it’s something only God can do, and you trust him to do it—you could never do it for yourself no matter how hard and long you worked—well, that trusting-him-to-do-it is what gets you set right with God, by God. Sheer gift. Romans 4:4-5 Message Bible

I’ve always been a hard worker. I’ve always gone the extra mile even when my first mile tired me out. But there have been times when the job I was given was way beyond my purview and I knew I’d either bit off more than I could chew or it was assumed I was better than I was.

It was about 21 years ago, I was hired as a consultant for a group of physicians who were in serious trouble and about to file for bankruptcy. I’d never done anything like this in my entire life. I was a medical biller with a history of good accounts receivables. I knew how to bill clean claims and the majority of them were paid quickly. I could look at a billers rejections and tell you whether or not she knew what she was doing.

The biller they had didn’t know what she was doing and when I looked at the amount of unpaid claims she had stacked on her desk, I was amazed she was still working there. Just because someone is nice, doesn’t mean they’re well suited for the job.

My first task was to get them set up for electronic billing so that their claims could be processed quickly. I sat alone in a small room with a mainframe computer, a very large book and a phone. I put my head down on the book and prayed, “God, I have no idea what to do or how to do it, but I know how to hear your voice and will do what You tell me, but please speak cause I’m lost here.”

I looked up and saw the phone in front of me and heard the Lord say, “Call the helpline.” So I did. The voice on the other line said, “Finally! Someone I can work with!”

He walked me through 2 small steps and I transmitted a huge file. We went over it together and it looked ok so we sent it on. In 2 weeks, I went back to see how things were going with the new biller I had hired and they came walking out of their office to greet me. The one doctor was holding a check from one insurance company for $46,000 and asked me, “Do you walk on water too?” I laughed and said, “No, but I know the one who does!”

God freely gifts us with His abilities so that we don’t have to just depend on ours. I couldn’t do life without Him. Not on my job, not in my relationships, not in any part of life. He is everything to me. I’m so thankful that I don’t have to do anything to earn forgiveness, His blood did that and His blood is enough.

And trusting-Him-to-do-it is what gets me set right with God, by God. Sheer gift!

Sandy G