I just got finished doing a little reading in the book of Job and discovered some great truths in those passages. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Job or his story, let me give you a little background. Job was a righteous man that followed God. Because Job was so upright, God allowed Satan to pretty much take everything from Job (his cattle, family, etc.). God did not allow Satan to take Job’s life, though. Though everything had been taken from Job, Job still continue to praise and worship God.
I would say that Job went through a pretty huge trial (that would probably be an understatement!). However, Job continued to glorify God through it all. Here are 6 things that we can see in Job’s story that we can apply to our own lives:
1. Job was prepared for the trial. Job did not know that the trial was coming. However, we can look and see that Job was walking with God by the way God talks about Job (Job 1:8). God only tells us that trials will come, not when. We can walk with God and have a relationship with Him like Job did in order to be prepared.
2. When the trial came, Job immediately worshiped. Check out Job 1:13-19. Those are some pretty depressing verses. One by one, someone comes to tell Job something else he has lost. Instead of turning to despair and self pity, Job immediately fell to his face and worshiped (Job 1:20).
3. Job didn’t blame God for his troubles. Job 1:22 says, “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” Job knew that God had allowed the troubles to happen, but I am sure Job also knew that God had a purpose behind it all. Job didn’t blame God or get mad at Him- Job just worshiped (Honestly, this is a little easier said that done sometimes!).
4. Job refuted those who wanted him to dishonor and turn from God. Job’s friends…. even Job’s wife wanted him to turn from God. In fact Job’s wife told Job to curse God and die. WOAH! Hopefully no one will ever be this harsh about God with you during a trial, but you could have some temptations from the world to do just as Job’s wife and friends suggested. DON’T! Follow Job’s example and refute those (with love) and continue to follow God.
5. Job knew that we must accept the good AND the bad that God gives. It’s so easy to accept God’s good blessings. Is it easy to accept the trials He gives us? No. Job knew that we must, though (Job 2:10). The Christian life comes mixed with wonderful blessings along with trial and suffering (which usually bring blessings, but in a different form). We must accept both. God does not want a relationship with us in order to fulfill a wish list for us but to sanctify us to make us more like Him so that we can better serve Him. God uses both the good and the bad to make us more like Him. Be like Job… Accept it as it comes and glorify Him as it comes…. good or bad.
6. Job was delivered by God and was more blessed than ever before! Check out Job 42:10-16. These verses are the opposite of what was happening in the first part of Job! Job glorified God all throughout his trial, and God delivered him and brought him out on the other side better than before. If you glorify God and continue to pursue Him and follow Him in the midst of your trial, He will do the same for you. He might not rain down worldly blessings on you, but He will bring you out looking more like Him and having a deeper knowledge of Him. Trust me, I know! I have a much deeper knowledge of so many truths of Scripture after going through the trial with Mom. These last few verses of Job are just proof of God’s beautiful promise that He gives Christians in Romans 8:28.
People often say that you are either going into a storm, are in a storm, or are coming out of a storm. No matter which stage of this you think you might be in, I encourage you to study Job and his example of how to handle the storm. My prayer for myself and my prayer for you is that we can speak the words shown below in the picture to Christ and mean them! Job did (Job 1:21)!
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