Have you ever woken up to the worst day of your life? I mean opening your eyes to the knowledge that the day is terrible before it has begun?
I've mentioned before that being in the faith doesn't mean that your life suddenly becomes a perpetual state of sunshine, rainbows, and roses, it means that life happens and we choose to lean on God. We choose to believe that His Word is still infallible. We choose to trust Him, especially when it stops making sense. There's a song by MercyMe that has been on repeat for the last week or so, part of the chorus says this:
I know the sorrow, and I know the hurt Would all go away if You'd just say the word But even if You don't My hope is You alone
This stanza hits different when you're going through, especially when the only course of action in a situation is to live through it.
Let us consider Job. Job had a beautiful and comfortable life. He loved God, his family and he had money. As the Bible explains it, the devil is given permission to disrupt Job's life, as a testament of Job's love and devotion to God.
"And the Lord said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil? Then Satan answered the Lord, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought? Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face."
Job 1:8-11
God told Satan that Job was a good and faithful servant. Satan says, "Prove it". So from Job 1:13- Job 2:7 we learn that Job loses all of his money, his kids, and his health but keeps his faith. The book of Job has 42 chapters in it and it describes what his wife and then his friends felt about what he's going through. It describes his grief and there are even portions where he challenges God on his existence, yet in all of this Job's opinion, faith, and love for God remained unmoved.
There are three points I want to make specifically about Job's trial.
1. God's faith in Job's faith is something I am completely dumbfounded by. Like, I know that God is omniscient and we have the benefit of having the whole story playing out neatly in 42 chapters. So we understand that the design of Job's tribulation and endurance was to illustrate to us that it is possible to be a devout, God fearing human that has terrible things happen to them. This isn't a stand alone demonstration of the fact. Matthew 5:45 says,
That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.
God trusted that Job was going to prove Him right. What kind of life and relationship with God did Job have to have?
2. Job isn't penalized for questioning or complaining to God. Instead God allows him to process through his grief. Job wishes he were dead and God listens. Job expresses his agony and God hears him. Job talks with his friends as they encourage and accuse him. Job pleads for understanding and God gives him perspective. Job was living out Hebrews 13:5 before it was even written!
Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
3. If Job could endure everything he had to endure without the Holy Ghost or our current dispensation of grace, how much more can I conquer? 1 Corinthians 10:13 says,
"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."
If God has given it to me, it is because He has given me what I need to bear it, because He has given me Him.
For as long as Job's tribulation lasted, I can imagine him thinking, "Today is the worst day of my life", yet he was able to endure long enough to experience God's blessings twice over. My prayer is for Job's endurance today, what about you?
Through it all, through it all, I’ve learned to trust in Jesus, I’ve learned to trust in God.
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