Emunah gives a person the strength to go through life feeling that he is always being cared for. Whatever situation we find ourselves in, we know Hashem is right there with us. He knows exactly what we need, He hears every tefillah, and He has unlimited ways of helping us.
A woman recently shared a beautiful example. She wrote that it was difficult for her to see the families around her, as well as her coworkers, packing up and going away on vacation this past summer, while she knew that her family couldn't even afford some of the basics. She knew that in the natural way of the world, they were not going to be able to get away at all that summer.
One morning, on her way to work, she began praying and crying to Hashem as she would speak to her own father. She said, "Tati, I really want to go away for Shabbat next week, from Thursday to Sunday, to a beautiful place that will work for our family, without us having to pay for it." She prayed a little more and then continued on to work.
That day, she received a phone call from a relative inviting her family to join them at a place they had rented upstate during the coming week. She thanked them for the offer but explained that unfortunately those days wouldn't work for her family. She then added that what she would really love would be to go away the following Shabbat because that would work much better for their schedule.
A few minutes later, the relative called back. They had arranged for her family to have the place they were staying in from Thursday until Sunday, exactly what she had just asked Hashem for. They had even gone directly to the owner and gotten a great rate without having to pay the usual third-party fees. And they said they would be more than happy to take care of all the costs.
That morning, the woman cried out to Hashem asking for something that seemed completely beyond her reach. She didn't know anyone who was planning to offer her a vacation, and she didn't have the money to arrange one herself. All she knew was that she had a Father in Shamayim Who could give her exactly what she wanted, and within hours, what she had asked for, she had gotten.
She wrote further, "Right now, I don't know where we're going to get the money to even pay for gas and food for this trip. But I do know that I have a loving, caring Father Who listens to my tefillot and loves me, and I know He will provide us with everything we need."
This is what one experience of hashgachah peratit can do for a person. Hashem doesn't only give us what we need at the moment. Sometimes He'll give us an experience that will strengthen our emunah for the future. At first, this woman didn't know how she was going to afford a vacation. Then she didn't know how she was going to afford the gas and food for the vacation. But she was looking at that problem much differently than she looked at her previous problem because she had just seen firsthand how Hashem could give her something that seemed completely out of her reach.
We don't always have to know in advance how Hashem is going to take care of us. Our job is to know Who is taking care of us. When we live with the feeling that Hashem is our loving Father, that we can speak to Him openly and ask Him for whatever we want, and that He has unlimited ways of providing exactly what we need, that can give us the confidence and feeling of love we need to go through anything in this world.
As an aside, somebody heard about what happened with this woman and asked if he could make a contribution that would enable the family to fully enjoy their vacation that weekend. And so it was. They received all the money they needed and had a beautiful family getaway.