The Pothole of Self Pity
February 28, 2014
The Pothole of Self Pity
Jonah 4:1-4
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry. And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray thee, O LORD, [was] not this my saying, when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish: for I knew that thou [art] a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repentest thee of the evil Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech thee, my life from me; for [it is] better for me to die than to live. Then said the LORD, Doest thou well to be angry?
In the Word of God perhaps Jonah serves as kind of the poster child of self-pity. He had to go where he didn’t want to go, preach to a people he didn’t want to preach too, and then see God’s mercy toward them when they repented, that he didn’t want to see. He made no bones that he had an attitude concerning the matter. So he is just telling the Lord to end his life, it’s not worth living any more.
While it is easy for the reader to see how wrong Jonah’s attitude was, he didn’t see it and most of the time we don’t really see it in us either.
I really think the enemy tries to feed our minds with thoughts of how unfair life is to us and how we so often are mistreated, abused, neglected or unappreciated. That is not to say that there is never any substance to these feelings, for often there are valid reasons we feel this way. What we must guard against is the subtly of the enemy and our own self, as we tend to get our eyes on us and all of our woes.
The Lord gave me a good revelation of this in myself recently. Request were always being made of me to do this or that which was okay, but then I began to feel that they really never seemed interested in caring and responding to my needs. Now the thing about self-pity is that it’s like a good stew, the longer it simmers the better it gets, the more justified we feel and the more unfair life seems. So finally it all came out and the other person had to sit and listen to all of my “woe is me”. The truth is they probably had feelings of being neglected or taken advantage of just like I did. Afterwards I began to get a revelation of the pothole of self-pity I had stepped into. Here is all of this talk about how we need to lay our lives down and walk in love and all of sudden I look up and see this big old stain of selfishness in me. Sometimes we get these wake-up calls about how shallow our love really is. I realized that whenever I am turning inward and caring more about me than about others, I am going to be discontent and unhappy, because my needs and expectations will seldom be really met by others. I need to be leaving those feelings with the Father, because He is the one who completes me and fulfills me. The truth is, I am probably often going to be a disappointment to others in meeting their wants and needs just as they are in meeting mine. How many times do needs and expectations not get met because we are living selfishly, upset about what we don’t have while we fail to consider if we are really meeting the needs in others. This introspection usually just leads to greater and greater polarization. That is why the Word is always exhorting us to get our eyes off ourselves and on to the needs of others. The less place that we give to self, the less place it has to feel sorry for itself.
We often think or say, “Will, if the Lord had given me a better husband or wife, or better children, or a nicer neighbor or better Christian friends, or different relatives, I wouldn’t feel and act the way I do. Do we ever consider that may be exactly why we have these people in our lives? In a perfect world you will never be stretched and grow beyond where you are at. Only opposing forces cause us to reach further, try harder, and exert more energy to overcome our opposition. We say, “Well, that person just brings out the worst in me.” Praise God, how would you and I ever know what was in us if we didn’t have people that revealed our true heart. It is the irregular people in our lives that give us the opportunity to exercise and practice our Christian values. Instead of seeing the irregular people in our lives as our problem, maybe we need to view them like our spiritual gymnasium where we can workout, exercise and practice our Christian love, values and the nature that God wants to work in us. It is only when I see and acknowledge my sin and weakness that I can repent of it and seek the Lord’s help in overcoming it. There is no one that can help us become more conformed to the image of Christ than our enemy. If Jesus would have had no Judas or religious leaders to betray and falsely accuse Him, there would have been no Calvary and we would not have the salvation we are now partakers of. Our adversity can serve to bring us up into godliness as we meet it with the Spirit and attitude of Christ. If we have a selfish or self-centered attitude, then like Jonah we are going to become angry and bitter as we justify and feel sorry for ourselves.
Watch out for that pothole of self-pity. It is one you can really twist your ankle on and cripple your walk. Do all things as unto the Lord and for His glory and honor, counting it all joy that in your service you first serve Him. “Let all your things be done with Love (1 Corinthians 16:14).”
Alert and Watching
February 27, 2014
Alert and Watching
Judges 7:5-7
So Gideon took the men down to the water. There the LORD told him, “Separate those who lap the water with their tongues like a dog from those who kneel down to drink.” 6 Three hundred men lapped with their hands to their mouths. All the rest got down on their knees to drink.
7 The LORD said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the other men go, each to his own place.” 8 So Gideon sent the rest of the Israelites to their tents but kept the three hundred, who took over the provisions and trumpets of the others.
As I watched a sparrow feeding out of the bird-feeder this morning I was impressed at how it did not just casually eat with no other thought or worry in the world. It was continually eating and watching, turning its head from side to side and aware of what was going on around it. It didn’t take its safety and well being for granted, but was ready to fly at a moment’s notice. I was reminded of the story of Gideon and how that out of thirty-two thousand whom volunteered to fight for Israel, God brought it down to three hundred. The first thing God did to disqualify the excess numbers was to let all that were fearful or afraid go home. God is raising up a people for His glory and one of the first things they must have is faith and confidence to believe and trust in their God. A lack of faith and trust is the first thing to disqualify us. Out of the thirty-two thousand that started twenty-two thousand went home. Ten thousand were still too many people. A battle won with that many men could be construed as man’s ability, rather than God’s. God must receive the glory for the deliverance and if we think we have any strength or ability then we tend to dismiss God and take the glory for ourselves. The second thing God did was to narrow the field by having them drink water. If they were down on their knees drinking with their head down and unaware of their surroundings they were disqualified. Only three hundred lapped the water from their hands like dogs, because that way they were alert and ready, their physical needs were not turning their attention from their first duty as soldiers in readiness.
Where are most of us as the body of Christ? Where would we fit in among these thirty-two thousand that came to fight in the Lord’s army? Have we become fearful and afraid? Has our faith and confidence in the Lord become weak? Has our attention has been diverted by our blessings, by our affections for life and by all the other distractions that take our eyes off of the Lord. Have we ceased to really watch and be concerned about the things of God and the timing of God? I don’t believe the Lord is looking for us to be fearful or paranoid, but He is looking for those like the three hundred that fought with Gideon, who are alert and watching in their spirit. They are attuned to when the enemy is around, where he is at and what he is doing. They are not allowing themselves to become vulnerable by becoming lethargic and complacent. They are sensitive to the hour and the timing of the Lord, watching to move at His command and His coming.
This aspect of watchfulness is addressed a number of times and especially in the New Testament, but in Psalm 130:6 David says, “My soul [waiteth] for the Lord more than they that watch for the morning: [I say, more than] they that watch for the morning.”
Jesus teaches us this throughout the gospels such as in Matthew 24, 4“Jesus answered: “Watch out that no one deceives you. 5For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Christ, and will deceive many…13 but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. 14And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come…” 42″Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come. 43But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. 44So you also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.
45″Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? 46It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns. 47I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. 48But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, ‘My master is staying away a long time,’ 49and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. 50The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. 51He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
In Matthew 25 Jesus gives us the parable of the ten virgins, the five wise and the five foolish. When the Lord did come the foolish missed out, because they were unprepared and not watching. When they came back it was too late and the door was shut to them. Verse 13 says, “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.” Mark 13:37 says, “And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.” 1 Corinthians 16:13 exhorts us, “Watch ye, stand fast in the faith, quit you like men, be strong.” 1 Thessalonians 5:6 tells us, “Therefore let us not sleep, as [do] others; but let us watch and be sober.” Paul exhorts Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:5, “But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.”
The Lord is speaking to all of us today to rise up off of our haunches of complacency and spiritual dullness. Now is the day to really get our ears in tune with the Spirit of God and our hearts ready to meet Him. He is exhorting us not to neglect the day of His visitation, but as good soldiers, to prepare ourselves and be watching for Him. When the Lord comes will He find most of us at the water hole, drinking our fill and oblivious to the spiritual time, hour and condition of our hearts?
When the Spirit addresses the churches in Revelation 3, the first concern that He addresses is one of watchfulness. Revelations 3:3-6 says, “Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. 4Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. 5He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. 6He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” Isn’t this what He is speaking to our hearts today?
The Cream
February 26, 2014
Exodus 22:29
Thou shalt not delay [to offer] the first of thy ripe fruits, and of thy liquors: the firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto me.
The Cream
During the depression my grandfather had a farm and in order to make ends meet they used to sell cream. I never really saw it work, but I remember on the farm was a shed we called the milk house. In that shed was a machine called a separator that would separate the milk from the cream. The cream was the richest and most valuable part of the milk. The cream was never really discerned or seen when it first came from the cow. It was the process of separation that brought it to the top.
I believe God is looking for the cream of His crop. Our world is like a separator that spins us, tries us, and test us. God is looking for those individuals that are laying hold of the fabric of His life through the midst of our life’s tests.
Has it ever struck you that in Revelations 2 and 3 where the Spirit is speaking to the churches, at the end of each exhortation to each church there is a promise to the overcomer? The Spirit is saying to him that gives heed to my correction and exhortation in obedience and faithfulness I have a special promise. Now the promise doesn’t come without a condition and requirement. The Lord is talking about more than just salvation here. He is talking to those who stand the test of separation and who rise to the top.
Paul speaks in Philippians 3 about running the race. He forsook all else in pursuit of the prize, the prize of the high calling that in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:13-14 says, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.” The “perfect” used in this scripture refers to maturity in spiritual matters. God has a higher calling that He is calling those who are mature into. There are promises to Him who overcomes. This is a different calling than just a salvation experience, this is a calling into the first fruits, the first ripe of Christ, that will come into His image and likeness.
How great is your vision? Are we content in our spirits with just our salvation or do we hear a trumpet that is calling us to come up higher? The overcomer hears that trumpet and responds to it. Do you hear a higher calling in your life today? It will come through the Separator.
God Offenses
February 21, 2014
Genesis 4:2-6
Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.
6Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
God Offenses
How many of us, if we are being totally honest, have had times and maybe still are, when we were angry or offended at God? God didn’t answer in the way or time that we thought he should have. Maybe someone we loved dearly was taken from us or someone we had been praying for to be healed died anyway. Maybe that spouse never came back as we believed God to heal our marriage. Somewhere along the way most all of us have had the opportunity to take up an offense with God, because He didn’t meet our expectations. I know there has been times I have struggled with that and maybe we say, “We’ll God, what is the use of praying and believing if you’re not going to answer.” The fact is, He did answer, it just wasn’t the answer we were looking for or that we wanted to hear. One thing about God is that He is far too great and big to fit in the box of our finite thinking.
When we come to these places in our life we find ourselves in the place where Cain was. God didn’t reject Cain. He simply told him to do what was right and he would be accepted, “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”
What was Cain doing wrong? There is a principle in the Word of God that without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin (Hebrews 9:22). Cain was a man of the soil, which speaks to him being man that operated out of the works of his hands. What he brought God was the product of the works of his hand. Our works are not an acceptable sacrifice. It is not that good works can’t result out of faith, but neither can they be the substitute for faith. The fat portions of the lamb that Abel offered spoke of the blood that covers sin and the sacrifice of that offers up our flesh to Him as a living sacrifice (Roman 12:1).
When we pray and believe God that is a good thing, but He doesn’t act according to our will unless it is in alignment with His will and purpose.
Let’s take a New Testament example of offense. This one that the Lord showed to Sharon, my wife, but a lot of us don’t really see it. It deals with John the Baptist when he is imprisoned by Herod.
Does he know who Jesus is?
John 1:29-34 says, “The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! 30This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ 31I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
32Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. 33I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ 34I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.” So, yes, he knew that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God.
Matthew 11:2-15 reveals John the Baptist’s offense with Jesus. “When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples 3to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
We just read in John 1 where John the Baptist knew that Jesus was the Christ. So if He is the Christ why hasn’t He done a miracle or something to rescue John the Baptist? Do you suppose John the Baptist was praying to God to take him out of that prison? If Jesus can work miracles and He is the Son of God, then surely He can get his servant, John the Baptist, this great man of God out of prison.
John was in a test. The enemy was no doubt bringing everything about God and his ministry into question as he remained there in that dark dingy cell. He was even beginning to question if this Jesus really was the Son of God. Sin was crouching at the door and only an unrelenting faith would conquer it, but he sends his disciples to ask Jesus if He really is the Christ. Have we ever been in a test like that?
“4Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 6Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
7As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 9Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10This is the one about whom it is written:
“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’
Jesus rehearses the greatness and the calling of God on the life of John the Baptist, that there was none greater and yet what does He say? “yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” Why? Because John the Baptist had taken up an offense with God.
11I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. 12From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. 13For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. 15He who has ears, let him hear.
What forcefully advances the kingdom of God is those who refuse to be offended when things don’t work out their way. They will speak as Job did in Job 1:18-22, “While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said, “Your sons and daughters were feasting and drinking wine at the oldest brother’s house, 19when suddenly a mighty wind swept in from the desert and struck the four corners of the house. It collapsed on them and they are dead, and I am the only one who has escaped to tell you!”
20At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21and said: “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.”
22In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.
Job didn’t take up an offense, even though God contradicted every principle he knew, he would not sin by charging God with wrongdoing. It was this kind of faith and faithfulness in Job that would eventually promote him into a priestly ministry of intercession and bring a double portion increase of all that had been taken from him.
We may need to repent today if there has been a offense in our heart against God. We aren’t always going to understand the ways of God and it is not necessary that we do. What is necessary is that we maintain our faith and our faithfulness. ‘He gives and He takes away, but blessed be the name of the Lord.’ ‘When we can’t trace His hand, trust His heart.’
Blessings,
kent
The Way of the Lord Leads Home
February 20, 2014
Ecclesiastes 9:11
I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race [is] not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.
The Way of the Lord Leads Home
The way of the Lord leads home. His ways are just and true. He lifts up the brokenhearted and releases the captive from their captors. Freedom is found in the Lord and in His presence. Joy is found in His fellowship and wisdom comes with understanding, which the Spirit imparts to man.
Rescue the perishing, provide and have mercy toward the poor, the fatherless and widows. Your mercy shall not go unnoticed, but will in due time reap its just reward.
The expected gives place to the unexpected and wealth gives place to poverty. The just shall live by faith, but the upright shall possess all things. The man who is high in his own eyes shall be brought low and the humble before the Lord will be placed in their stead.
Seek the Lord while He may be found, before the day of indignation and tribulation. Know Him as the oil of your lamp and the life of your vessel. As long as you are steadfast in your hope of Him, none will quench the light from your lamp, for the Lord Himself shall sustain you. It is not by the will of man, nor his determination that establishes a soul, it is by the steadfast faithfulness of a broken and contrite heart that a man is lifted up and set in the high places. Whom the Lord establishes and exalts, none shall remove. Their place continues to abide. Their eyes and heart are never set upon themselves, but in the might of the Lord they abide and their light shall not fail.
Watchmen, sound the alarm in Zion, sound the trumpets of battle. The day of battle is at hand. The mighty Prince of Peace, the King of King mounts His horse and the sword of truth proceeds from His mouth. Behold your King comes with His host of righteous ones. Prepare for the day of battle that you may be among His noble ones.
When God is Silent and Understanding Fails (Part 2)
February 19, 2014
When God is Silent and Understanding Fails
(Part 2)
Job34:10-15
10 “So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. 11 He repays a man for what he has done; he brings upon him what his conduct deserves. 12 It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice. 13 Who appointed him over the earth? Who put him in charge of the whole world? 14 If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, 15 all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust.
Did Job deserve all of the calamity and misfortune that befell him? Was it a judgement from God for some hidden sin? Job 1:1 begins by telling us about Job’s character and how he was viewed in the eyes of God, “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name [was] Job; and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God, and eschewed evil.” The judgements or afflictions that befell Job weren’t about his sin. While we may not have all of Job’s integrity we are washed in the blood of Jesus and all of our sin is taken away, so when calamities befall us, is it always because of our sin? We often automatically condemn ourselves when bad things happen and assume it’s God’s displeasure with us. It may be His pleasure not to condemn us, but to do an inner working of grace and purification that is perfecting His holiness in us. As God desires to bring us into a priestly ministry, there is purification and sanctification that brings one to the altar where all one is of themselves, is poured out. Look for instance at the life of Paul. In 2 Corinthians 4:7-12 Paul expresses His priestly ministry, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. [We are] troubled on every side, yet not distressed; [we are] perplexed, but not in despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you.” We have come in recent years to equate spirituality with prosperity and blessing. Certainly we do serve a God that prospers and blesses us. We can see that Job had been enjoying the fruits of prosperity and blessing at the hand of God for many years. While we don’t deny His promises and His blessings, if we look we will see that there are inner blessings and workings of God that go far beyond the outward ones. God is more concerned with the inner workings of our spiritual man than He is with our earthly comforts. Spiritual overcomers are not raised up in the ease and comforts of life; they are raised up because they have experience and confidence in spiritual battles. They learn to stand in the test and overcome by the word of their testimony and the blood of the Lamb. We see at the end of Job, that through his experience, Job has found God on a new level. What Job thought he knew of God and how he justified himself he realizes that there is so much more to God. In Job 42:5-6 he says, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor [myself], and repent in dust and ashes.” The more this life is consumed the more we realize our life is in Him and not of us. Job 42:10 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.” It was Job’s friends that condemned him that God was displeased with and it was Job that God commanded to stand in the gap, sacrifice the animals for them and pray for their forgiveness. There is that new and greater dimension of ministry that God is preparing a people for. Romans 8:18-19 tells us, “For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time [are] not worthy [to be compared] with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.” Are we not these sons of God that creation is waiting for? Let us not faint in the process that God is taking us through to prepare us for the glory that shall be revealed. God loves you, Christ ever lives to make intercession for you and He is perfecting that which concerns your faith. …”What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we notreceive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips (Job 2:19).” In Job 40:8 God asks, ““Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?”” Hold fast and don’t give up when God is silent and you feel forsaken, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of [our] faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).”
blessings,
kent
When God is Silent and Understanding Fails (Part 1)
February 18, 2014
When God is Silent and Understanding Fails
(Part 1)
Job 23:8-17
8 “But if I go to the east, he is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find him. 9 When he is at work in the north, I do not see him; when he turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of him. 10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. 11 My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. 12 I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. 13 “But he stands alone, and who can oppose him? He does whatever he pleases. 14 He carries out his decree against me, and many such plans he still has in store. 15 That is why I am terrified before him; when I think of all this, I fear him. 16 God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me. 17 Yet I am not silenced by the darkness, by the thick darkness that covers my face.”
I ask God’s wisdom and counsel today in what we share. There are times in our lives when we know and trust God with our heart, but we question Him with our mind, intellect and understanding. We try and reason how God is, who God is and how He should act and work in our lives. Life’s circumstances and trials can sometimes be very crushing and cruel. They leave us in the wake of disasters that our natural reasoning struggles to understand and comprehend in the light of what we know about God. The question is often asked and disputed, “If you are a loving and just God, how could you let this happen?” Why do bad things happen to good people? Many depart from their faith through the course of life, because God has disappointed them and failed to live up their expectations. Sometimes when we are desperate for answers or a Word, God is silent.
The book of Job has long been a source of comfort and strength to those of us who find ourselves in these places in life. It is not uncommon for any of us at times in our lives to have these hard questions, because God does not always respond to us the way we think that He should. About the time we think we have God all figured out and put in the box of our finite understanding, He blows the lid off of our box and defies our understanding. God has defined Himself by certain characteristics and attributes, but His thoughts and ways are so beyond ours that they are unable to be corralled by human or conventional wisdom. Some of you who are reading this now have struggled in your faith and perhaps have faltered because you couldn’t grasp why something happened as it did. You prayed and you felt God didn’t answer. You tried to walk in faith and you didn’t feel that God came through. You may have trusted God and you felt He let you down or cried out to Him and it seemed He wasn’t there. We may have said in our hearts, God, are you really real? If You are who You say you are, then where are You, why have You abandoned me in my hour of need? In times past we were so sure of His reality and we had experienced His presence, the joy of salvation and the precious power of the Holy Spirit. Now our world has turned upside down and God seems nowhere to be found. In the discourse of Job 29:1-6, “Job continued his discourse: 2 “How I long for the months gone by, for the days when God watched over me, 3 when his lamp shone upon my head and by his light I walked through darkness! 4 Oh, for the days when I was in my prime, when God’s intimate friendship blessed my house, 5 when the Almighty was still with me and my children were around me, 6 when my path was drenched with cream and the rock poured out for me streams of olive oil.” Has that ever been the cry of our heart from the hardship and trials we have experienced? Many of us, like Job, have searched for the answers that could bring comfort, consolation and satisfy our dejected soul. In these times and through these monumental trials, what is our heart attitude toward God? Can we still maintain our trust in God’s integrity and righteousness, or will we forsake and curse our God and turn away from our faith? When the fires of hell are brought to bear upon our faith, when we can no longer with the natural eye behold the evidence of God, but only see the devastation of the enemy in our midst through death, sickness, poverty or affliction can we maintain our integrity and faith toward God? Sometimes the fire of God will try and test our hearts in the ways that blessings and answered prayers never will. It is easy to love and serve God when all is well, when we are prospering, healthy, wealthy and wise. It is easy when we worship and sense God’s presence, favor and blessing, but what about when all of that is withdrawn? Can you still trust Him and hold fast to Him?
Blessings,
kent