Recently, my friends have been coming to me with feelings of “bitterness,” “anger,” “confusion,” “disappointment,” and a feeling of having been “let down.” I’d be lying if I said I, myself, haven’t felt those things over the last couple of months, too. I’d contribute these feelings to the natural cycle of life but I believe even more that the enemy is up to his same ole’ tricks in my life and the lives of my friends and has only one goal in mind -- to kill, steal, and destroy everything that brings me even an ounce of joy.
God describes the enemy as a “thief” in John 10:10 and if you really think about that in regards of how Satan comes into our lives and throws everything into an uproar and steals away our best and happiest parts of life, doesn’t it make complete sense?
At times, and possibly even right now in your life, it feels like one night you went to sleep with not a worry in the world and suddenly, you woke up in the morning with 500 notifications that sent your life into a swirling mess unrecognizable to you. It seems like God has forgotten all about you and you’re wondering if He even hears your cries of desperation for something to change. You’re angry and bitter that other people are doing well and your life is falling to pieces right in front of you and it’s like no one cares. You feel alone and you’re just about ready to give up – even your friends are okay with you pitying yourself.
Do you feel like that? Or, have you ever felt like that – even for an hour or a day?
If so, trust me when I say, you’re not alone.
You may or may not have heard of Job and I won’t hold it against you if you haven’t because I hadn’t really heard of Job until I started studying the Bible either. But, if anyone can understand where you’re at or where you’ve been, it’s Job – however, there’s something to be said about Job’s faithfulness to God, so let me explain.
“In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil.” (Job 1:1)
Job had a beautiful family, a “just-right” kind of home with animals to sustain all his family’s needs, and he also had his health. In the eyes of everyone around him, Job had it all. He had no reason to not be faithful to God. However, Job was faithful to God not because of the things that God had blessed him with but because God was all that Job truly had that could never be taken from him.
As the story goes …
“One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them.” (Job 1:6)
Although I’m sure God already knew the answer to His own question, God asked Satan where he had come from. Satan replied (with a taunting jab, I’m sure) saying that he had been roaming the earth, back and forth. In essence, Satan was hunting. Because God knew that if Satan was around, he must have some grand plan to test one of God’s most faithful followers and without prefacing His own question, God asked Satan “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him, he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8).
Satan asks God a question that unfortunately I’m guilty of having asked about many Christ followers in my own life who look to have “perfect, all put together” lives -- “have you put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?” It’s easy to see things that way too when we look around and everyone but us has it all together.
Satan challenges God to strike Job down because “he will surely curse you to your face.” And, it may shock some of you, but God basically responds, “very well then” to Satan’s request, but commands him to not lay one finger on Job. Ah, it is in this moment that Satan truly believes he’s got all the power.
Here’s where things get “interesting” and in some ways, probably all too real for your own life, too.
Satan begins his destruction on Job’s life – he takes Job’s family, his home, his animals, and even his health. Job is what most people would call “a victim” at this point in his story. He should have pitied himself just like his friends did. He should have been angry, bitter, and frustrated to the point of turning his back on God … but he never didn’t believed himself to be a victim. Despite asking God to spare his life as he scraped at his own sore-ridden skin, Job never lost faith in God. Eventually, Satan realizes that no amount of pain, tragedy, or discomfort was going to sway Job’s faith in God. Job truly was blameless and upright. He did fear God and shun evil.
Some people read this story and are reaffirmed in the notion that God punishes His children. But, that’s false -- God was not harsh with Job, nor was He was punishing him for any wrong doing. God used Satan’s tactics for Job’s ultimate good, which is the part of our own lives that we often misunderstand as God’s wrath and punishment. God knew Job better than anyone. He knew what he was doing and he knew that Job would prove himself to be a faithful servant. If we know and believe that God works everything together for the good of those who love Him, then we should also know and believe that God loves us and works miracles in our times of devastation.
God wanted to restore and bring hope back into Job’s life and He did just that.
First.God restored Job's friendships.
Job prayed for his friends during his suffering. Think about that again … Job Prayed For His Friends During His Suffering. I'm not good about doing this for people in my times of suffering ... so think about having that kind of faith. Job’s friends had persecuted and slandered him and were miserable in their own lives and passed that same miserable feeling onto Job in his weakest of moments. Job knew that God had forgiven his friends long before they were even known friends of Job; therefore, Job must forgive them too. So, he prayed for them not because he himself would ever be able to forgive them for how they had treated him but because God needed to free Job from that anger and bitterness for himself. Once Job prayed for his friends, God began to restore other parts of Job’s life, too.
Second. God restored Job's fortunes.
God gave Job double what he had before. Double, y’all. It is understood in the Old Testament, that when God blessed someone doubly, this individual was the special object of God’s grace. Pretty cool, huh? Job having received double what he had before served as an indication to him, his friends, and to us especially that God’s grace and favor was with Job, just as it is always with us. Remember that God identified Job from the beginning as being a faithful servant and he said that there was no one else like him in all the earth. I might fall over from joy if I ever heard God say those words about me.
Third.God restored Job's family.
In one day, Job lost all ten of his children and soon after that, his wife, who turned on Job in her own grief and encouraged him to curse God and even further, to die. We’re not sure if Job had more children with his wife or a new wife, but we do know that Job was blessed with ten more children – seven sons and three daughters … THE SAME EXACT NUMBER OF CHILDREN AS BEFORE. Come on, y’all!!
Fourth.God restored Job's future.
God blessed Job with another one hundred and forty years of health. He not only saw his children grow up, but his grandchildren, and his great-grandchildren and their children too. God blessed Job with a life that he could look back on and feel exponentially joyful and thankful for because of God.
The beautiful reality of this story is not that Job’s life ended “happily ever after” or that God loved Job so much that He blessed him. No, this story is a beautiful representation of God’s promise for our future if we remain faithful and hopeful as believers. God serves as a reminder of hope during the many, many storms that come through our lives and tear down every firmly rooted (or so we think) tree in our life. I don’t know that he will bless us with 140 years of life or if he’ll bless us with the same number of children we lost before. I don’t know that we’ll always get better in health or if a terrible disease will be wiped from our bodies forever. But, I do know that all it takes to see God work is faith the size of a mustard seed.
Job had a great amount of faith in God but there are a lot of us who wish we had that kind of faith but can admit that we don’t. In Matthew 17:20, Jesus says “Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”
Do you have that kind of faith – the earth-shattering, mountain-moving, storm-brewing kind of faith that Job had and the kind of faith that God wants you to have?
Or, do you have just a little bit of faith – enough to barely see it but still know it’s there?
No matter where you stand in your faith – a little or a lot, you have the ability to move mountains and you have the ability to rise above of your circumstances, bad friends, terrible health, or what you swear is bad luck just like Job did because of God.
Philippians 4:13 wasn’t written for no reason – “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” I believe that Job lived by this verse … but, the real question is, do you?
All you need is faith the size of a mustard seed to start with and a willingness to hear God’s voice in the storms of life and you will see God move in indescribable and miraculous ways.
