Today's devotion comes from Job 2:9-13.
Job 2:10
New King James Version (NKJV)
10 But he said to
her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed
accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this
Job did not sin with his lips.
Job's faith is so very clear in this verse. He's rebuking his wife, but rather than calling her a foolish woman, he is telling her she speaks like a foolish woman. He's not attacking her but suggesting that this is a temporary lapse of faith on her part. He is saying she has begun to repeat the words of stupid, foolish women with no knowledge of the grace and glory of God. You see a tenderness in his faith by that gentle rebuke. He reasserts the sovereignty of God by saying, "Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" Job's wife thought life should be pleasant and that without that it was not worth living. Even today, that philosophy is widespread.
But the book of Job, I believe, is here to show us that life is not to be lived on those terms (our terms). The reason we are here is not to have a good time, well not all the time at least. Despite when life brings us challenges, there are still meaningful objectives to be attained. Even though living is not always fun, life is still worth living. Job reaffirms that. We take God's joy and His pleasure, the pleasant things in life, with gladness and gratitude. If God chooses to send something that is difficult or hard, do we then abandon that gratitude and begin to curse Him in protest because life is suddently not what we thought it would be?
The reason we are here is not just so we might have a good time, and this is taught everywhere in the Scriptures, not just Job. God, provides us so many hours of joy and gladness and pleasure and delight, and it is right to give thanks. But do not abandon that when the going gets tough because that is what Satan wants us to do. He wants us to complain and protest to God; to be upset, angry or resentful; to stop going to church or being in the Word. That's Satan's plan- his attack on our lives.
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you, in good times and in bad. No matter what the day brings that might try to push me down. I pray that you strengthen my faith in You, that I can accept both good and evil from Your hand, as Job did. Thank you that Your purposes for me, though sometimes painful, are always good. In Your Son's Name, Amen.
Job's faith is so very clear in this verse. He's rebuking his wife, but rather than calling her a foolish woman, he is telling her she speaks like a foolish woman. He's not attacking her but suggesting that this is a temporary lapse of faith on her part. He is saying she has begun to repeat the words of stupid, foolish women with no knowledge of the grace and glory of God. You see a tenderness in his faith by that gentle rebuke. He reasserts the sovereignty of God by saying, "Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" Job's wife thought life should be pleasant and that without that it was not worth living. Even today, that philosophy is widespread.
But the book of Job, I believe, is here to show us that life is not to be lived on those terms (our terms). The reason we are here is not to have a good time, well not all the time at least. Despite when life brings us challenges, there are still meaningful objectives to be attained. Even though living is not always fun, life is still worth living. Job reaffirms that. We take God's joy and His pleasure, the pleasant things in life, with gladness and gratitude. If God chooses to send something that is difficult or hard, do we then abandon that gratitude and begin to curse Him in protest because life is suddently not what we thought it would be?
The reason we are here is not just so we might have a good time, and this is taught everywhere in the Scriptures, not just Job. God, provides us so many hours of joy and gladness and pleasure and delight, and it is right to give thanks. But do not abandon that when the going gets tough because that is what Satan wants us to do. He wants us to complain and protest to God; to be upset, angry or resentful; to stop going to church or being in the Word. That's Satan's plan- his attack on our lives.
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank you, in good times and in bad. No matter what the day brings that might try to push me down. I pray that you strengthen my faith in You, that I can accept both good and evil from Your hand, as Job did. Thank you that Your purposes for me, though sometimes painful, are always good. In Your Son's Name, Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment