“’All right, you may test him,’ the Lord said to Satan.” (Job 1:12a NLT)
Do you realize that everything that touches your life, both good and bad, passes through the filter of God’s permission? Why would God allow something bad to enter your life? Remember Job, according to God’s Word: “…was blameless – a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.”
Is that an accurate appraisal of your life or mine? Hopefully, that’s our aspiration and we’re doing the best we know to do, but I can’t boldly declare I have lived as well as Job did. Yet, notice what God allowed in his life: The Sabeans stole all of Jobs animals and killed all but one of his farmhands; “The fire of God” burned up his sheep and killed all but one of his shepherds; a band of Chaldean’s stole all of his camels and killed all but one of his servants; and the house his seven sons and three daughters were in collapsed, killing them all.
Yet, after experiencing all this loss, Job’s response was to worship the Lord and offer Him praise. But his misery was only beginning. Then he was afflicted with “terrible boils from head to foot,” at which point his loving wife suggested he “curse God and die.” And Job’s response? “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”
Is it fair to say we likely wouldn’t have responded like Job? I’m quite confident that wouldn’t have been my response, as much as I might wish it would have been. But why not? Has God changed? Is His power to comfort and console been lessoned over the centuries?
Granted, there are people all over the world who are suffering atrocious hardships, many believers in Jesus, but why? On some levels my pity isn’t for them, but for me and the millions like me who profess faith and trust in the living God of the Bible, but we’re cushioned from the misery of the rest of the world. Is that a blessing or a curse?
Yes, of course, I’m grateful for God’s protection and kindness, but is He allowing us to be spoiled? Is He allowing us to be weak and dependent upon our many creature comforts? Will we fold like a paper napkin when the inevitable days of tribulation come upon us? It’s incomprehensible for me to ponder all the ways Job was tested, yet never failed.
To consider the loss of one of my children is unthinkable. I can’t process the pain with which I would be wracked. So, does that mean my faith in God is shallow? Is that an indicator of the weakness of my trust in God? I pray not! What I do know is, while I would wish it on no couple, my divorce, as painful and heart rending as it was, taught me lessons I could have learned in no other way, lessons that have helped me to become the God-dependent man I am today.
So, what’s the point? Knowing nothing touches our life except it passes through the filter of our heavenly Father’s permission, how do we respond when good things happen? And bad things? James writes in chapter 1:2-4: “Dear brothers and sisters, when troubles come your way, consider it an opportunity for great joy. For you know that when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow. So let it grow, for when your endurance is fully developed, you will be perfect and complete, needing nothing.”
My sense is that God never allows anything to enter our life except it enables us to see Him and ourselves more clearly, ideally leading to greater intimacy with and dependence upon Him.
Food for thought.
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 