Shortly after, a colleague came to tell me that the Bank had come out with a list of retrenchment and hinted that I would be one of them. I went to the Lord that night and He brought me to the story of Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20. It says that some men came and told Jehoshaphat that "a vast army is coming against you ...." This related so well to my situation and I knew that I must learn from Jehoshaphat to seek help from God and I prayed to Him following Jehoshaphat's prayer " ...I do not know what to do, but my eyes are upon you...." I knew that I could not look at the circumstances as they would melt my heart in fear and cause me to give up but I must look to the Lord. The story taught me that the battle belongs to the Lord and He is the one who would grant me the victory. A day or two later, the Lord brought me to the story of David fighting against Goliath. Again David declared that the battle belonged to the Lord. I began to cry out to God and looked to Him to help me fight this battle.

I remembered Rev Francis Khoo once shared that he took every trial as an opportunity to exercise faith and every trial, having been overcome becames a testimony. I made up my mind to look at this trial positively and trust God to make me an overcomer. It was not easy. So many times when I was invaded by fear I had to remind myself again and again to keep gazing on Jesus lest I sink into the storm. I remembered once I was very afraid as my sales were still very slow. I cried out to the Lord on the train to attend a Spiritual Growth Seminar: " Lord, please ask Rev Francis to prophesy into this area of my life since he had prophesied into so many areas before. Don't be silent about this. I am so fearful Lord!" And guess what? Without telling Rev Francis anything, he prophesied: "The Lord says to you : Fear not. He will come in quickly to help you." These words brought so much comfort and assurance to me.

I began to trust God and started to see my clients becoming more receptive to my advice and the sales number picked up. I started to have the assurance that everything would be all right. I prayed to God to help me before starting work, during lunchtime and thanked Him at the end of the day. At night, I would commit to the Lord some specific situations. I prayed longer than I realised as it just felt like short conversations to me. I talked to God as though I was talking to a friend. And I recited the words of God in my prayers and told the Lord the stories in the Bible saying that as He could do this and that, He could do likewise for my situations. I found my faith growing as I heard God's words in my own prayers. I saw God's help and provision first hand and was amazed. I was so full of faith that I no longer entertained the thought that I might be retrenched. I just took it that I would be alright. I was happy that I behaved more and more like a "true" Christian in this trial and Rev Francis confirmed that he saw some fruits as he prayed for me. Many times I was tempted to ask God to cut short the trial yet I knew that I must become what God wants on the inside.

A year later, I was the only survivor in the list of people up for retrenchment. Everyone else in the list was either retrenched or redeployed. Thank God and praise Him! He had helped me to pass the test of faith.