When God Gets Ready to Elevate You
Watch this movie clip first!
"When God decides to elevate you, He will open doors that no man can tamper with or shut on you!"
Working Girl
Working Girl is a 1988 film staring Melanie Griffith who plays Tess McGill, a Staten Island girl who worked in the big city of NY, and Sigourney Weaver, a finance executive who managed a top NY firm. Tess was the type of girl that didn’t fit into corporate NY. People from Staten Island are loud, they have strong NY accents, and they aren’t big city sophisticates. Tess was a secretary but she was smart and knew about investing, having put herself through night school. But she always saw herself in a better position than being a secretary.
Her boss, Katharine Parker, assured Tess that she was rooting for her and that if Tess ever had any ideas that she would try to help her rise and get credit for those ideas. Tess had an investment idea that she wanted to pitch to a media company, so she shared it with Katharine in confidence, hoping that Katharine would help her reach the mogul of the media company. But all long Katharine was scheming and planned to use Tess’ ideas as her own to pitch to the media mogul herself. The truth came out and Katharine was ousted.
Tess ended up getting credit for her own idea and in this scene we see Tess on her first day of work at the media mogul’s company. She had no idea what her new job would be, so she arrived thinking she was going to be a secretary. She had been a secretary her whole life so why should that change? Until, the woman in the scene, Alice, informs Tess that she is not a secretary but that has an office, and that Alice is her [Tess’] secretary…
But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. -1 Corinthians 2:9 (AKJV)
How does this apply to me?
My dear brothers and sisters, for those of us who have accepted the gift of salvation through Jesus, who love God, and who seek to live according to His statutes- we will be blessed. All people who are living are blessed, Christian or not. But, God loves to lavish gifts on those who seek Him and He loves to surprise us. What a mighty God that we serve, as He seeks to bless us spiritually, mentally, physically and economically!
The movie Working Girl as a whole, and this scene in particular was a moving scene for me. Many have lived and are living lives as secretaries with contentment. With this movie in mind and using it as a spiritual example, being the secretary symbolizes contentment with what we have, even if that means we’re living in a bustling NYC- which also symbolizes- the way we often see big city living in the form of nice penthouses, driving nice cars, eating at fancy restaurants and taking exotic holidays. Many are content and happy working for someone else’s dream, living in a rented flat, driving a non-luxurious car, or vacationing at our nearby beach or lake.
God wants us to be content with what we have, no matter how little or big it is. But every so often, God looks at His faithful and content child and is ready to elevate you with more. He says, “I see you working for yourself and for your own dream; I see you owning a home instead of renting someone else’s; I see you driving a better car; or I see you vacationing in another place.” “And you know what? Since you have been ‘faithful with few things’ my child, ‘I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your Master’s happiness’ (Matthew 25:21).”
God is faithful and He is good. He wants us to enjoy our earthly lives that He has given us (Ecclesiastes 8:15). He wants to surprise us, where one day we may walk into something new, it will be the same of what we had before, but maybe slightly better, and BOOM! - God has given us something far more than we could have ever asked for or imagined (Ephesians 3:20).
When God decides to elevate you, He will open doors that no man can tamper with or shut on you! And He will come and find you and lift you up. We can't do it on our own power. It's God who decides to elevate people (Psalm 75:7). When God was ready to make Joseph the second in command of all of Egypt, He went and found Joseph and elevated Him. When God was ready to bestow on Mary the role of Blessed Mother, He sent an angel to tell her the news and elevated her. When it was time for the Canaanite army to be defeated during the time of Deborah, God elevated Jael, a woman to defeat the Sisera, the leader of their army to do it.
Let us resolve to stay faithful to God, to not lose hope in trials, and to be content with what we have now. For in due season we will reap if we faint not (Galatians 6:9).
Happy Friday! xx