Friday, August 22, 2014

While You're Waiting for God to Answer

Monday, August 25, 2014
So Satan left the Lord’s presence, and he struck Job with terrible boils from head to foot.  Job scraped his skin with a piece of broken pottery as he sat among the ashes.  His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity?  Curse God and die.”  But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman.  Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”  So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.   Job 2:7-10  (NLT)
Gary Larson's "Far Side" cartoon appeals to the weird-side.  In a cartoon he pictures several demons gathered around a desk in an office.  As you look through the door you see people in the flames; it’s a picture of Hell.  The demons, while looking at the contents of an opened suggestion box, are laughing like hyenas.  The black humor is that the people in the flames are really up-against-it; all they have is the suggestion box to cling to, yet the demons simply toss aside their only hope with derision. 

This depicts frustration, futility, and hopelessness.  It is humorous in a comic strip designed to present the ironic view of life; in real lives it presents an accurate picture of the tragedy and hellishness of separation from God.
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       Have you ever felt like you've been unceremoniously tossed aside, and your prayers have been put in the hands of laughing demons? 
       ·        Have friends and/or family cut their ties with you suddenly? 
       ·        Has the doctor ever said "cancer"? 
       ·        Has bankruptcy presented a real threat? 
       ·        Have your plans been put on a side-rail? 
       ·        Have you ever awakened to a new day BLAMED by everybody, BUSTED by circumstances, and just plain BUMMED-OUT by life in general? 

And you've asked God to help.....and it seems like even He is on vacation?   

Job was the millionaire from Uz; Job had a day like that!  And, for him, it seemed like the only response he was hearing wasn’t from above; it was the demons laughing!

Job's wife only speaks two sentences in the whole account of Job's trouble.  But we must not overlook the reality that it was Mrs. Job’s trouble as well.  She was the wife of a wealthy, healthy, influential business tycoon.  She had a family that was wonderfully successful and happy.  And then, for no apparent reasons, the plug is pulled, and her happy, healthy family is devastated!  Her children are gone, her friends have pulled her membership in the Junior League, the rent is due, and her previously powerful and in-control husband is sitting on the town garbage heap, saying blessed be the name of the Lord

Hello!  Will someone please pinch me, 
and end this nightmare?

Can we learn anything from Mrs. Job?  When the dear lady was going through her pain she didn't want questions answered, she wanted survival, and relief from her pain.

And so, perhaps, do you.

It’s easy for us, several thousand years after this all happened, to look at the end of Job’s story and see how God stepped in and answered it all.  But what comfort is somebody else’s “happy ending” when you’re going through pain?

In the next several days we will explore what Job and his wife learned through this experience.  We will learn several lessons about what to do while you’re waiting for God to respond to your prayers.  

In the meantime…

For You, Today

Stay tuned.


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