George Macdonald, said, "How often we look upon God
as our last and feeblest resource! We go to him
because we have nowhere else to go. And then we
learn that the storms of life have driven us, not
upon the rocks, but into the desired haven."
When life knocks us flat on our backs,
maybe God then has us right where we need to be -
looking up. The prodigal son was slopping the pigs
before he "came to his senses" (Luke 5:17). The same
is often true of us. We soothe ourselves, amuse
ourselves, analyze ourselves and improve ourselves.
After all is said and done we're still not
satisfied. What promised fulfillment ends up
disappointing sorely. So we look for the next
sure-fire method of making our lives complete and
the cycle continues.
God patiently waits for his children to
realize that he is willing and able to do everything
he said he would. He said he came to give abundant
life (John 10:10). He can. He said he would never
leave us (Hebrews 13:5). He won't. He says no
problem is too big for him to handle (Ephesians
3:20) and no sin is too bad for him to forgive
(Micah 7:19). But sometimes it’s easier to trust God
for forgiveness than it is for peace. When we’re
looking for forgiveness we know we’ve wronged God.
But when we can’t connect the dots between our
suffering and our actions we may be tempted to doubt
his judgment and goodness.
The book of Job tells of a godly and
wealthy family man who lost everything but his life.
When his children and livestock are dead and his
body is covered with painful sores there is this
exchange between Job
and his wife:
"Do
you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and
die!' But he said to her, 'You speak as one of the
foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good
from God and not accept adversity?' In all this Job
did not sin with his lips." (Job 2:9,10)
Then Job's friends
come along to comfort him. So far, so good. But soon
they make a big mistake. They start assuming and
voicing their assumptions. Job wonders out loud what
he has done to deserve this. So his friends, in
their "righteous", albeit ignorant indignation, give
Job several sermons with a common answer: God's mad
at you because you're sinning! Stop sinning and bad
things will stop happening! This just makes Job
angrier. He knows he's done nothing to deserve this.
And God agrees with him (1:1,8). This goes on for a
while and Job demands that he wants an audience with
God. It's time for the Almighty to explain himself!
Job gets what he asked for. (We've got to be careful
about that.) But God turns the table on Job and asks
him a few questions. The message comes out loud and
clear: I'll be God. You be Job. I don't owe you any
answers. Job humbly repents of his attitude. He
hasn't had a single one of his questions answered.
But he has had an up close and personal
demonstration of the greatness of God.
Then God has this to say to Job's
friends, "You have not spoken of Me what is
right, as My servant Job has." (42:8) What was
it they said about God that was not right? They
assumed they knew what God was doing and why he was
doing it and blathered these things to Job. And they
knew nothing of the kind.
The book of Job teaches the greatness of
God and the limitations of man. It teaches us that
people suffer, sometimes terribly, in this world,
even the best of people. It teaches us to trust God
even when we don't understand God. And it teaches us
the danger of supposing we know what God is doing or
why he is doing it. It is ours to trust and obey. It
is his to be God.
Maybe you feel like you're at the end of
your rope. If you are, look up. He's at the other
end. He wants to pull you up. He wants to bless you.
He wants to forgive you. He wants to grow you and
give you peace. But you must trust him.
"He brought me
up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry
clay; And He set my feet upon a rock making my
footsteps firm."
(Psalm 40:2)
God bless you.
Brad Fry
