After an emotional days this week that centered around cleaning out my wife's closet I had a discussion with a friend. The question came up that essentially focused on when too much is too much. Having suffered through the tragedies I have had to face, it is quite tempting to say that enough is enough. After all, how much is a man supposed to endure?
The discussion turned to the book of Job. During the time of his testing Job never turned his back on God. He continued to believe even though his closest friends told him he was cursed by God. After all, hadn't God indeed cursed him? Hadn't God taken everything from Job? Didn't Job have every right to be angry with God? Yes. Yes he did. And was he angry with God? Yes he was. Was he wrong to be angry? No. Was he wrong to be angry at God? Again I think not. Was it good for him to be angry? Absolutely not. “Because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” James 1:20
However, God did not punish Job for his anger. Why not? Well the first and most obvious answer was that God had allowed Job to go through so much already that punishing him would have been unjust. Secondly, throughout the trials Job went through he did not sin. Ephesians 4:26 tells us: “"In your anger do not sin”: Do not let the sun go down while you are angry."
So why did Job go through all that he went through. As I told my friend, personally I believe we go through trials for three reasons. 1.) The wages of sin is death. We reap what we sow. 2.) Satan attacks us unmercifully in an attempt to get us to take our eyes off of God. 3.) God allows us to go through things to help us grow and to be a witness for Him. And I don't think we are limited to just one of the three. I think at times we can have big ole heaping doses of all three at once!
We are always being selfish. Grief is a selfish emotion. But it is an emotion that God gives us and he knows what grief is like. When he heard that his friend Lazarus had died, he wept. It grieves his heart when we are in pain. He holds our tears in his hand. Let's look again at Job. He complained (something many people forget) but He never blames God. He asks God to take him and remove him from his pain but imagine if God had removed him from his pain. But what if God had answered his prayer? What if God had said that Job had gone through too much to ever be able to recover and just called him home?
The final chapter of Job shows us that God restored to him in greater measure all that he lost. But it does not tell us the timeline. That restoration may have begun immediately or several years later. Regardless, God rewarded Job's faithfulness. But if God had answered Job's prayer and taken him home he would never had the opportunity to experience the reward God had in store for him here on earth.
If you read carefully you will find that the Lord didn't restore things to Job until after Job had prayed for forgiveness for his friend's folly. Even in his lowest moment Job put the needs of his friend's first by praying for God to forgive them. This has been, is, and always will be my goal. Put other's needs first and pray for them. My prayer for me? May God bless me with the wisdom to recognize when opportunities to be a blessing pop up.
I don't pretend to have it all together. I don't call my blog the Life of the Perpetual Overcomer for no reason. Every day is a struggle. Some days greater than others. But my prayer is that God will be able to use my story to help others much as he used Job's story. My restoration may not happen this side of heaven and I'm perfectly okay with that. I'd rather store up my treasures elsewhere anyway. But restoration will occur in spite of my sin and in spite of how many times I let the Lord down. And that restoration may start tomorrow. So, tomorrow I will get up. I will make my bed. I will start my day because tomorrow could be the day...perpetually.
