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The mere mention of the name Job can make me quake as I immediately think of suffering and trials and loss. Who wants that? So much better to think of pleasant opportunities and blessings.

Yet recently I found myself turning to the book of Job without these feelings of dread but instead to learn a few lessons.

Job-moments.

Those are the very moments when we find ourselves seemingly stripped of hope and life.

We are told that Job was a blameless man, full of integrity and he kept himself away from the evil of the society. He was wealthy by the standards of his day and raised his family in the ways of God.

If we are honest, most of us would feel that God should have blessed this good man and yet we find that God gives permission for Satan to have a field day with Job. Satan can do whatever he wants to Job so long as he does not take his life.

Job loses his all of his his cattle, sheep and shepherds, camels and servants, and lastly his sons and daughters. In a relentless series of attacks, Job is left only with his wife and friends, who aren’t much help or comfort.

“In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.” (Job 1:22, NLT)

How amazing is that! Job did not ask the questions which would have come to my mind and off of my lips faster than a jack rabbit …

  • “Why?”
  • “How could you allow this?”
  • “If you really loved me, how could you be this mean to me?”
  • “What did I do to deserve this?”

My reading of Job has brought me to realize Job brings us an important lesson:

We must be faithful to God in the middle of our difficulties.

We will all have our moments like Job. It is in these very times that we will have to make two important decisions for ourselves:

  1. Either God loves me or He doesn’t.
  2. Either God is good or He is not.

We decide not based on our feeling or what we hope but on these truths:

God loves me.
God is good.

The difficulties we experience throughout the course of our days will bring us to declare the same conclusion as it did Job:

“I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.”
(
Job 42:5, NLT)

May we see Him in all the circumstances in our life, all of our days.

 

Today I am joining … #DreamTogether and Moments of Hope and Soul Survival and Inspire Me Monday .