Tag Archives: Job

Hold On

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Job 26-31

As Job speaks his last defense to his friends, I can almost feel his pain. He’s at rock bottom, trying to make sense of it all.

He went over and over his life, the choices he’d made to see where he might have gone wrong. He remembers being successful and respected, honored by young and old alike. He remembers opening this home to strangers, feeding the hungry, caring for the needy. He remembers praying to and trusting in God. He remembers choosing right over wrong to the point he wouldn’t even look at another women so he wouldn’t sin against his wife.

He stood by his righteousness. And he was disappointed that God seemed to have turned his back on him. And yet…

Even in the midst of his pain, confusion, and sorrow Job couldn’t let go of hope. By now it was just a thread, but it prevented him from turning his back on God. Job may have felt he was speaking to the back of God’s head, but Job couldn’t let go of the hope that something bigger and greater was going on. He still had trust in God. He just couldn’t let go. Yes, even though he was hanging on by a thread.

When everything around me is falling apart, when I feel the rocky bottom getting closer, when it seems easier to curse God and die, may I hold on to hope. The truth is, God is faithful. There is something bigger and greater going on that only God knows. And God can be trusted.

Job will find all that to be true. And I have done the same.

Exactly What You Need

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Job 11-14

Who can blame Job for having a pity party? The man had been handed an incredibly hard pill to swallow. He was sad. He was sick. He had questions. But here’s what I think we can learn from Job’s example: the longer the pity party is allowed to continue, the deeper into despair you go.

Job thought about the unfairness of it all, his personal loss, the fact that he was totally alone in this consumed him. Now, in just a few chapters we will see he realizes the harm in that. But right now, the man is about as low as a man can be.

Some of you may be going through Job-like circumstances. No one is telling you not to be sad. Jesus wept when Lazarus died. No one is telling you not to question. Jesus, on the cross, asked, “Why?” However, we as Christians don’t have to stay in the sad or uncertainty.

We, like Paul, can learn to be content in whatever circumstances we find ourselves because we can trust God who does all things well, who works things out for the good for those of us who love Him.

Whatever it is that is bringing you down, the state of the world, the state of the Church, your home, your physical body, whatever it is, you can confidently surrender it to God. When you do HIs peace, peace the world cannot understand, will guard your hearts and minds now in your present circumstances and right into eternity.

When Christians are the worry-warts, the Debbie Downers, the frightened and paranoid, Satan wins! What kind of witness can you be if the only thing you’re focused on is you? How can you share God’s grace when you only talk about how bad things are? How can you express the joy of the Lord when you ignore the joy-giving Presence of God?

No matter what you are going through, God is still telling you to go and make disciples. No matter how tough life is for you, God is still telling you to be a light.

Do you remember Paul and Silas? They, bruised and bleeding and chained to prison walls, sang praises to God at midnight. And what happened? The foundation of the prison crumbled, their chains fell off, and they were free!

When we choose to fix our eyes on Jesus, God can shake the prison walls of our circumstances, break the chains that bind us to depression and anxiety or self-pity, and set us free.

Is it midnight, so to speak? Are you in the middle of hardship and loss? Have your pity party if you must. But please don’t stay there. Take your eyes off the prison walls and chains, and look into the eyes of Jesus, your advocate, your strength, a present help in times of trouble, your Savior who loves you!

He’s there. He’s listening. And He is exactly what you need.

January 5; What Is Your Answer?

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Job 1-3

Job was the George Bailey of the ancient world. He was “the richest man in town.” Sure, he had wealth. But he was also rich in family, friends, prestige, reputation. He had it all.

And he lost it all.

The book of Job has many lessons for us concerning suffering. Who hasn’t wished at some time or another, that they’d never been born? Life is hard. Loss is painful. And sometimes things happen that we’re convinced we just don’t deserve. Job will have a lot to say about that in the next few days.

But I don’t think suffering is the main theme in this book. If you look at chapter 1, Satan is suggesting that people only worship God when they are blessed by Him; only when the bills are paid, and they get a good report from the doctor. Satan is still suggesting that.

And sadly, we often equate health and wealth with God’s blessings yet today.

Not that God doesn’t sometimes bless us with those things, but I think the main theme in the book of Job is worship. The issue at hand is, “Is God worthy of worshiping even when times are hard and we feel abandoned by Him? Or, is God only worth worshiping on good days?”

You probably know Job’s reaction to the news that his livestock and slaves were gone, and all his children were dead. He heard of one disaster after another, then another, and another. It was too much. He fell to the ground and said these words:

Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. (1:21, emphasis mine)

In the first throws of unimaginable grief, Job praised the Lord. And we will find that…

In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. (1:22)

I think the main theme of Job is the question, “Is God worth it?” And that’s the question I’d encourage you to answer for yourself today. Does God deserve your worship regardless of your situation or your feelings? Does He deserve your worship when you aren’t getting the answers you think you need? Do you use worship as a bargaining tool to get what you want?

Friend, the truth of the matter is, God deserves our worship for the simple fact that HE IS.

Job won’t be happy about his situation. Job will ask some hard question of God. Job probably didn’t “feel” like worshiping God in the midst of his pain. But in all this Job will not sin, he will not turn His back on God or deny God. Job will worship God despite his circumstances.

And so should we. Because God is worth it. Do you believe that?

What is your answer?

Listen For The Whisper

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Job, in chapter 26, tries to say how big, how powerful, how awe-inspiring is God. God is supreme over death and hell. He is supreme over creation: “He hangs the earth on nothing.” And God is supreme over heaven.

Job tells us that’s just the tip of the iceberg. It’s just what we can know of God. God is greater, more powerful than we can even imagine!

Then in verse 14 he says, “…and how small a whisper we hear of him…”

What we see around us, what we experience in life is such a small part of WHO God really is. Our human minds can’t comprehend his reality.

A whisper is something you can only hear close up. That’s what spoke to me in this verse today. This immense God leans in so we can hear him. As mighty as he is, as awesome, and as enormous his reach, he is also personal, wanting us to know him.

He whispers to us through his Word, through the birth of a baby, through struggles and joys, through a budding rose, and a summer rain. “Here I am,” he says to us. “I love you. I died for you. I want to walk with you today.”

Listen for the whisper!