Job

Should you Ignore your troubles and trust God?

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).

Does Your Patience Has A Short Wick

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.

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-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).

The Gift of Patience

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).

Sifted Faith

Knowing-Jesus.com

Suffering and sorrow are part of the human life cycle. And yet we often blame the devil when these ills befall us. Of course, the devil is always plotting and scheming. But he cannot touch you unless God permits him.

So, the next time, unusual circumstances put your faith through a sift, don’t yield to Satan’s schemes; your trials might very well be God testing your trust as he did Job.

In the book of Job, we read about a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. The Bible says Job was blameless and upright. He feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters. And he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yokes of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had many servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

Job was an honorable man and a faithful servant of God. The devil who roams the earth like a roaring lion could not touch him because the Lord had built a hedge around him. But the devil was determined to prove Job as a fake. So, he had a talk with God and suggested that if God took everything Job had, Job would curse Him.

God removed the hedge from around Job and permitted Satan to take everything Job had. Satan sifted Job’s faith in God as wheat. And Job lost everything, including his children. But Jobs faith never wavered. In all his suffering and sorrow, Job didn’t sin, neither did he curse God. He justified God’s confidence in him.

In the end, God would restore Job and doubled his prosperity.

The trial you face could be a test from God

121013tragedy

Of course God tests His chosen! There is a mountain of Biblical evidence that God often uses hardship to test His chosen. Moreover, quite often those tests resemble the trials and tribulation the devil place upon you.

So, aside from the hardships that come naturally on your Christian journey, there are also more than a few difficult situations that God uses to test your commitment and resiliency. Therefore, as you navigate this narrow path, it is of paramount importance that you understand that not every trial you face is design to destroy you. The Bible says, ..”the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes each one he accepts as his child.” (Hebrews 12:6).

For example, Job 1: 1-3 states, “There once was a man named Job, who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless—a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil. He had seven sons and three daughters. He owned 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 teams of oxen, and 500 female donkeys. He also had many servants. He was, in fact, the richest person in that entire area.”

Still yet, God allows Satan to visit terrible trials upon Job to test him. And in a short period, Job lost all his livestock.  Then a desert wind blows down his house, killing all of his ten children. And when Job did not falter, Satan double down and afflicts him with painful sores all over his body. Unable to help her husband, Job’s wife urges him to curse God and die. However, Job stays true to his commitment to God.

And in the end, “the LORD restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before” ( Job 42:10)…He lived for another 140 years.