Wednesday, February 10, 2021

Life Can Be Tough

 

Wednesday, February 10, 2021
“If my misery could be weighed and my troubles be put on the scales, they would outweigh all the sands of the sea.  That is why I spoke impulsively.  For the Almighty has struck me down with his arrows.  Their poison infects my spirit.  God’s terrors are lined up against me.  Don’t I have a right to complain?  Don’t wild donkeys bray when they find no grass, and oxen bellow when they have no food?  Don’t people complain about unsalted food?  Does anyone want the tasteless white of an egg?  My appetite disappears when I look at it; I gag at the thought of eating it!  “Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant my desire.  I wish he would crush me.  I wish he would reach out his hand and kill me.  At least I can take comfort in this:  Despite the pain, I have not denied the words of the Holy One.  But I don’t have the strength to endure.  I have nothing to live for.  Do I have the strength of a stone?  Is my body made of bronze?  No, I am utterly helpless, without any chance of success.  Job 6:2-13

As Job analyzes the situation and all that has happened, he knows that the circumstances are bleak.  It's been a tough week.  He's lost everything he worked so hard to accumulate, including his health, the respect of his friends and even his wife.  And yet, later in his ramblings, Job makes a dramatic (and oddly-strange) statement that hardly seems to fit the moment to all who hear it; he proclaims,     I know that my Redeemer lives....I will see God. Job 19:25

The circumstances say that Job is going down for the third time.  His life is in the dumpster.  His family is dead, and his wife is looking to collect his insurance money.  Job's friends are heaping on the insult that the God Job has been serving is at fault.  The ulcers of ancient leprosy are oozing his very life's blood...and Job has church, singing about how his heart "yearns within."  What gives?

The secret of Job's faith is that he knew that pain and suffering are not altogether inconsistent with the love of God.  How did he know that?  God had placed the reality within Job years before when Job gave his life to the Lord. 

A story is told of a sculptor who was working on a bust of Lincoln.  Day by day he would only make a few carefully planned strokes with the chisel.  Each night the cleaning lady would sweep up the debris and complain to herself about the "...mess this ol' rock makes."

Finally, one night, as the bust was nearing completion, the cleaning lady saw it for the first time, that it was the much-respected Abraham Lincoln.  She got so excited she came back during the day to watch the sculptor work on it.  She couldn't wait to see the final product.  She asked the artist, "How did you know Ol' Mister Lincoln was in there?"  The artist smiled and said, "Oh, I didn't really, I just started chiseling-away what just didn't seem to belong."

In a lot of ways, that is what happens when people give their lives to Jesus.  Before, like a block of uncut rock with a masterpiece inside, he or she is just waiting to be worked-on. 

But Mrs. Job didn't see that.  She felt the pain of the Master's chisel....she never trusted the Redeemer's stroke to bring out her beauty.

For You Today

Have you been "on hold"?  Are your prayers unanswered? 

What shall you do while you're waiting?  Here are a few suggestions:

·       Don't speak for, or before God.  See what His word will say, search it, milk it, digest it. 

·       Don't hide from God....struggle with him as He chisels-away the rubble. 

·       And don't forget that He loves you...So much that He died for you. 

That kind of love will eventually give you answers.  Answers like,

I am the resurrection and the life; he that believeth in Me though he were dead, yet shall he live; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall never die.  John 11:25 (KJV)

What is your choice…Mrs. Job's curse God and die?  Or Mr. Job...I know MY Redeemer lives..."

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

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[1] Title Image: Pixabay.com    Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©



 

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