JOB MOMENT – (02JUN19) Job was very discouraged and his
friends were of no help. He felt alone and thought that God was for some reason
using him for target practice. He was under deep agony that weighed heavily upon
him. He had more questions than answers, but would have been completely fine
with having rest in the grave. He found his friends to be of great disappointment
because they did not believe that he had not caused his troubles upon himself.
Those who were supposed to be a support made his life even more burdensome when
he already felt that it lacked meaning. His integrity was being challenged. His
faith was being brought into question. His sleep nonexistent and the only
benefit of his existence at that point seemed to be the worms that were
feasting on his body. Job could not see the chance for better days to be ahead
because there were too many dark clouds from his view. He did not understand
God. If only he knew the answer as to why he was going through the things he
was, he may have had some comfort, but no answers were there for him to find.
There are times when we are faced with trials and we will
not always understand them. Job was looking for answers but there were none for
him that would have appeased him at that time. We are a people who think that 1
+ 1 will always equal 2, but what happens when the simple arithmetic becomes
college algebra? How do we adjust when life throws unexpected curveballs our
way? One thing that is not easy to do, but is a must in this Christian journey
is for us to know that we will not always have answers down here on earth. Living
for Christ will often mean just walking in faith without ever knowing the why’s
for certain situations. There are things that we can sometimes have the answers
to, but then there are things that will present more questions than answers.
For example, planes that have crashed with children on board, how do we explain
to the loved ones left behind God’s purpose in the innocent dying? Yes, it’s
the devil who brings about evil, and yes, the wages of sin is death, and yes God
allows sin to take its course. BUT when a person is grieving, even while
knowing these things, the sense of it is still hard to understand and accept at
the time it happens. God knows this and yet, He still wants us to believe that
He is the I AM. Why?
If we had all the answers to life’s problems, there would be
no reason to have faith in God. Our human inability to always understand deepens
our faith in the One who does. We become God-reliant instead of self-reliant
when we simply place our trust in the One who knows the end from the beginning.
In everything that we go through, our faith is being tested. When Abraham was
told to sacrifice his son of promise, at the moment, he did not see in the
natural a ram in the bush. Yet, faith told him that God gave him the promise
and what He takes, He can also restore. Abraham’s faith was the belief in the
impossible, and God’s promise was making the impossible happen because of his belief.
Because we live in a fallen world, trials are going to happen, but to know that
we serve a God who has our lives in His hands can enable us to endure whatever
challenges that comes our way. Something to ponder…
QUESTION OF THE DAY – (02JUN19) Have you ever tried to
defend yourself against a false accusation? This is where Job found himself
with his friends. Eliphaz accuses Job of doing something that caused God’s
wrath to come down on him. He said that he had never seen anyone cursed who had
not brought it on themselves. Within Eliphaz’s dialogue, he gave a lot of truth
concerning the blessings of God and His correction, but this was not
appropriately used in the case of Job. Eliphaz wanted Job to plead his case to
God as if he was a defendant who was guilty of a crime. It was easier for
Eliphaz to believe that Job had somehow brought his troubles upon his own head
than to think that God was just allowing things to take place for His own
reason. Therefore, despite what Job said, Eliphaz remained unconvinced that Job
was innocent of any wrongdoing.
Oftentimes when people on the outside see someone going
through trials, they will immediately begin to think of all the wrongs that the
person possibly did to bring it upon themselves. Even in the church, people
will have you doing 3 hail Mary spins, speaking in tongues, confessing every
sin that you did not commit, and have you running a marathon to prove that you
are not being blessed because of some unconfessed sin that you did. Even though
there are some things that we may bring on ourselves such as cancer that
derived from smoking, an STD that came from premarital sex, imprisonment due to
robbing a store, or a foot amputation due to incorrect diabetic diet, not
everyone who has troubles is a result of a sinful consequence. Just as Satan
desired to afflict Job, he also brings trials and temptations our way. The one
thing to remember, however, is that he cannot do anything unless God allows us
to be tested. God had to give Satan PERMISSION to test Job. Yet, with testing
comes endurance and with endurance come victory. Something to ponder…
JOB MOMENT – (03JUN19)
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