“Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees. But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. Should not your piety be your confidence and
your blameless ways your hope?”Job 4:4-6
There was no doubt. I felt a new lump beneath the scar where two lumps had been removed four years before. Needless to say, it was discouraging and scary.
Job is the earliest written book in the Bible, and we find in him a man who suffered more in one day than many of us suffer in a life-time. God called Job “his servant,” a man who was “blameless and upright.” He feared God and refrained from evil. Yet Job’s blamelessness did not disqualify him from great suffering and testing.
No one is without trial. The type varies from person to person, because God deals with each of us individually. Only He knows what will best make us into the blameless and upright servants He desires. Don’t compare yourself to someone else.
More often than not, Job’s friends are incorrect theologically. However, they do point out common thinking which coincides with what people often say to us.
I used to do my best to downplay my own chronic health problems. However, it is difficult to lend strength and support to others if they see your life being free of problems. We relate best to those we can identify with the most. I have had far more opportunities to encourage those who are struggling since I became willing to share my own difficulties.
Just as Job had his questions for God, I wonder why my health is often a problem. I know those who work hard and serve God faithfully, yet are always in financial difficulties. Some have problems in the areas of their marriages or their children. We all suffer. God is interested in what we do with it.
Where do your hope and confidence lie? Do you think your own goodness should exempt you from suffering as Eliphaz says in this verse? Or, do you accept what God allows with an attitude of prayer and humility, seeking what He wants to teach you through the circumstance you face?
Face each day with expectant hope that God is working in you to grow you into someone He can call upright and blameless, a faithful servant. Place your confidence in Christ alone, and choose to look at your situation as being for your benefit and God’s glory.
© Copyright 2012 by Norma Gail Thurston Holtman and www.normagail-2mefromhim.blogspot.com. All Rights Reserved.
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