Routed in Prayer: A Devotional for Those Starting New Jobsಮಾದರಿ

Day 5: ‘Sorry, just one more question...’

Express Route

From ‘how do I work the coffee machine?’ through to ‘how do I access my emails?’, the first few days of a new job are filled with plenty of questions that you might feel a bit stupid asking. Change brings with it a loss of control and feelings of imposter syndrome. Today, use the words of Psalm 46 to reflect on what it means to be still and know that God is God, you are not, and that’s good news.

Scenic Route

Read: Psalm 46 

Reflect: Two weeks into my first job, I snuck over to the head of HR’s desk for probably the twelfth time that week. Slowly producing my first ever payslip, I admitted that I had absolutely no idea how to read it or what it meant. Nigel, bless him, blinked once and then quietly talked me through all the different columns and numbers and how to understand them.  

If you’re anything like me, you’ll have spent the last few days regularly cringing when you’ve had to disturb colleagues to ask the most basic of questions. From ‘can you remind me where the toilets are?’ through to ‘how do I change my email signature?’, there’s no shortage of ways that you can feel as if you look stupid, and long for some semblance of understanding and control.

Psalm 46 is a psalm of trust in God. It doesn’t promise that things will be easy – indeed, it actually presupposes the experience of trouble and pressure – but instead gives assurances of God’s character through whatever we are experiencing.

Contrary to popular belief, its most quoted verse – ‘be still and know that I am God’ – isn’t about finding God in silence. It’s about finding Him in the noise. What it’s saying is this: in the midst of the battle, stop trying so hard to look after your own defence, your own destiny. God is God, you are not.  

Stupid questions and imposter syndrome may continue to rear their heads for some time yet. For now, let’s rest in this knowledge: God is God. He is in control. We are not. That’s good news.

Pray: Bring to mind some of the questions you’ve found yourself asking over the last five days. If it helps, make a list of them. Name how it made you feel to ask those questions and bring that to God. Understand His deep love for you – independent of how you see yourself or how others see you. Relinquish control – perhaps by crumpling up and throwing away the list – and pray for the courage and wisdom to let God be God.