I had been
contacted recently by friends that have been dealing with everything from the
rejection of divorce or marital infidelity to loss of employment and home
foreclosure. I just want to encourage
anyone going through hardship right now that your heavenly father is with you
in your present situation and has good things planned for you in the future. Even if you don’t “know” God, He knows you. He
sees your adversity and earnestly desires for you to turn to him in
your pain. When we go through suffering sometimes
it’s hard to see past the current trauma and understand that God has good
things for us. The reason behind this is
often due to our heart believing lies about God that prevent us from accurately
viewing his character. God cares
for you as his own dearly beloved child.
He is captivated with you and wants nothing but good things for you. However we live in a fallen world among
broken people (ourselves included) and sometimes pain and hardship is part of
this journey.
A story that always troubled me in the Bible was the story of Job. For those of you unfamiliar with Job, he was a very successful and righteous man who despite having almost everything in his life stripped away, still remained faithful to God. He refused to blame God for his misfortune and refused to see God as anything other than a loving, righteous creator despite what was happening all around him. I would always read that story and hope that I never had to face any of the hardship Job did. You see, I didn’t always have a solid trust that God loved me. I saw him as an angry but emotionally distant deity. And I firmly believed in my heart that God had much more important people to worry about than me. In fact when things would get hard I not only failed to see God’s presence in my hardship—I would often believe that it was HE that was the cause of my pain. The lies in my heart prevented me from clearly seeing the one who loved me more than anyone. In the past if I would simply bounce a check at the bank--I would blame God for my NSF fees (lol). I have found while walking through some of the hardest things I have ever dealt with however, that God is always faithful and he is ever present with us especially in the painful times. He will never abandon you or turn his face away from you. Remember, it’s God's intent to give you the desires of your heart. But it’s his even bigger longing that you would understand his great love for you. I have also found that although things might look dark at present—God has good things planned just around the corner. One thing I never noticed before while reading the book of Job, was the ending of that story. I always got stuck thinking about all the tragedy that Job went through. In the ending of the story however is a short but powerful statement about Job that also applies to those of us "Christ followers" that are experiencing pain and loss in the present. “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.” (Job 42:12).
A story that always troubled me in the Bible was the story of Job. For those of you unfamiliar with Job, he was a very successful and righteous man who despite having almost everything in his life stripped away, still remained faithful to God. He refused to blame God for his misfortune and refused to see God as anything other than a loving, righteous creator despite what was happening all around him. I would always read that story and hope that I never had to face any of the hardship Job did. You see, I didn’t always have a solid trust that God loved me. I saw him as an angry but emotionally distant deity. And I firmly believed in my heart that God had much more important people to worry about than me. In fact when things would get hard I not only failed to see God’s presence in my hardship—I would often believe that it was HE that was the cause of my pain. The lies in my heart prevented me from clearly seeing the one who loved me more than anyone. In the past if I would simply bounce a check at the bank--I would blame God for my NSF fees (lol). I have found while walking through some of the hardest things I have ever dealt with however, that God is always faithful and he is ever present with us especially in the painful times. He will never abandon you or turn his face away from you. Remember, it’s God's intent to give you the desires of your heart. But it’s his even bigger longing that you would understand his great love for you. I have also found that although things might look dark at present—God has good things planned just around the corner. One thing I never noticed before while reading the book of Job, was the ending of that story. I always got stuck thinking about all the tragedy that Job went through. In the ending of the story however is a short but powerful statement about Job that also applies to those of us "Christ followers" that are experiencing pain and loss in the present. “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.” (Job 42:12).
“As you
know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s
perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is
full of compassion and mercy.” James
5:11
Amen. Sometimes you have to be willing to let go of what you have in order to receive something better....those things that anchor like a noose around our neck and choke off all hope of abundant life in Christ. Yet we all are guilty of trying to hold onto our anchors and trying to turn them into floats, or holding onto our splinters and yet expecting to heal and be whole.
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