In Response to Week 24 – Day 3 (Job 22-24)
As you have well stated Emily, Satan so comes at times if we aren’t
careful as Christians to pump us up with pride as he did with Job’s friends and
make us think we have all the answers to someone else’s problems. Satan also comes to attack us, as he
did Job, that God has spoken into us that He will never leave us.
As I read Job’s response to his friends in Job chapters 23 and 24,
I hear him saying to his friends, “So you think that God only allows trails and
suffering on those who have sinned,
and that I surely must have done something to deserve everything that’s happened
to me. So you guys just go right
ahead thinking what you want to think!
But you are wrong! God
allows suffering on both the just and the unjust. On the just He has a purpose for it, and it isn’t our
business to know what His purpose is in our suffering.” In Job 24:25 Job says to his friends,
“If this is not so, who can prove me false and reduce my words to nothing?”
God has a purpose in our suffering that is for His glory. It’s hard to accept that as
humans. Our immediate response to
all suffering is why is this happening to me. I think especially for those of us who are Christians. I think we sometimes have this false
idea that if we are living a Christian life, reading our Bibles everyday,
praying, giving to others, going to church, etc, that our lives will be smooth
sailing. This is not what the
Bible teaches us. The Bible
teaches us that suffering will come to us. Suffering has two purposes: it brings glory to God if we
respond with thankfulness in all things, and it also refines us and molds us
into the image of Jesus if we respond with thankfulness in all things. God will deliver us from suffering …
may not be the way we expect Him to deliver us, but He will deliver us as He
did with Job.
The passages below have helped me understand a lot more about the
suffering in my own life.
1 Peter 1:3-9
“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He gave us new birth
into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, that
is into an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. It is reserved in heaven for you, who
by God’s power are protected through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed
in the last time. This brings you
great joy, although you may have to suffer for a short time in various
trials. Such trials show the
proven character of your faith, which is much more valuable than gold – gold
that is tested by fire, even though it is passing away – and will bring praise
and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. You have not seen Him, but you love Him. You do not see Him now but you believe
in Him, and so you rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, because you
are attaining the goal of your faith – the salvation of your souls.”
Psalm 145:17-19
“The Lord is just in all His actions, and exhibits love in all He
does. The Lord is near all who cry
out to Him, all who cry out to Him sincerely. He satisfies the desire of His loyal followers; He hears
their cry for help and delivers them.”
**To share your
own thoughts and reflections email me at ejmushlock@gmail.com **
No comments:
Post a Comment