When your mid-night gets dark, and life throws you a curve ball to further complicate your situation, don’t let go; hold on.
I have dodged many curve balls in my lifetime, but I am a victim of many more. And, through it all, I have learned to trust God no matter how grave the situation. Still, that is easier said than done. But, I must remind you that the Bible is our blueprint, and the Holy guide is our guide.
We will never fully understand how God works. But you can rest assured that he always works in our best interest.
So often, situations occur in our lives against our expectations that we do not understand. And we get upset and even frustrated with God. But, little did we know that what seems unfavorable today is preparing us for a great experience tomorrow.
Job, one of the fathers of Faith, did not fully understand how God works either. But he was a faithful servant of God; even at the darkest moments in life and against the advice of those closest to him, he refused to blame God for his predicament.
So, my friends, the next time tribulation confronts you, look on the bright side or the bigger picture. For, “I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love.
No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39).
Sometimes God directs us down paths that seem impossible, but if you think outside the box, we’ll see that God is prompting us to kickstart our creative juices. For example, in my neck of the woods, I learned an old saying as a child: “If a man hates you, he will give you a basket to fetch water.” At first glance, it would appear futile to bring water in a basket. But with a bit of creativity, you realize that getting water in a basket is not impossible.
There are examples in the Bible of great men who scoffed at God’s instructions because they thought the tasks were impossible. For instance, Jonah refused to go to Nineveh, and Moses tried to talk his way out of going down to Egypt. But they later learned that God would never give you an assignment unless he equips you with the necessary tools to do the job. Hence, with Christ, all things are possible.
It seems that patience is one of God’s greatest gifts to man. But we often put it on the back burner.
For example, we talked about Job’s faith more times than we can remember but seldom mentioned his patience, which was instrumental in his struggle. If Job had not exercised patience, he would not have endured his struggles without complaining. Faith is one thing, but it takes great patience to be long-suffering.
According to dictionary.com: Patience is the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
Therefore, Job not only believed in God’s promises, but he trusted in his faithfulness and relied on God’s character and loyalty to act. But he also had patience and a whole lot of it.
I think Job needed three things to work in tandem, like a three-legged stool-faith, patience, and endurance. Faith alone would not work. Because the people who encouraged him to curse God and die had faith. But they were short on patience.
The Bible says, “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before,” (Job 42:10).
It seems that patience is one of God’s greatest gifts to man. But we often put it on the back burner.
For example, we often talked about Job’s faith but seldom mentioned his patience, which was instrumental in his struggle. If Job had not had long wick patience, he would not have endured without complaining.
So what is patience? According to dictionary.com: Patience is the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
Therefore, Job not only believed in God’s promises, but he trusted in his faithfulness and relied on God’s character and loyalty to act. But he also had patience and a whole lot of it.
I think Job needed three things to work in tandem, like a three-legged stool during his struggle-faith, patience, and endurance. Faith alone would not work. Because the people who encouraged him to curse God and die had faith. But they could not stand to see him suffer for so long. So their patience had a short wick like many of us.
The Bible says, “And the Lord turned the captivity of Job when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before,” (Job 42:10).
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