While You're Waiting for God to Answer - Part Four

Thursday, August 28, 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)

This week we’re learning lessons about suffering from someone who understood what it is to lose everything you have:  health, wealth, family and even reputation…we’re learning from Job.

So far the lessons have included don’t speak for God and don’t speak before God speaks. 

LESSON #3 - DON'T HIDE FROM GOD as He SPEAKS THROUGH YOUR PAIN

Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”   

I have seen it happen way too often, that when trouble or difficulty comes, the very last place people want to be is hanging around the church. 

Some of that has to do with pride; we really don't want the whole church to see us at our weakest. 

Let’s face it, being the object of other people’s pity is not a comfortable seat.  It’s much easier to roll over and go back to sleep than to face all those smiling, happy people.

But another reason why people put distance between themselves and church during times of trouble is our tendency to blame God for being unfair.  Our troubles are hard and we think if God really cared, He would not have let this awful stuff happen to me. 

So our trouble is God's fault. 

This is the essence of Mrs. Job's statement to her husband about maintaining his integrity – worshiping God when there’s nothing left.  Job fired back that they had received so much blessing from God’s hand.  Now, in a time of severe hardship he was asking his bride to do the math; they were always in God’s hands. 

For much of their life they had enjoyed sunshine; now their landscape is rainy, bleak and dreary.  And Job cries out, Blessed be my God who knows how much of each is needed.

Job was not going to hide from God, or blame all his trouble on God.  Job decided to hang in with God and struggle it out with Him.  That’s what Jacob did; Jacob wrestled it out with God at the Jabok river crossing.[1]  Jacob wrestled with God over his troubles and fears.  And somehow Jacob sensed that as he wrestled with what God was pushing him to do, he would find answers that were higher than his own ability to handle life's toughest questions. 

This is what the Psalmist meant when he said, My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.[2]

For You, Today…

If you’re up against it – so much, every day - don't hide from God, worship Him.  You don’t have to be one of those “happy faces” at church, false smile pasted on.  The church should be the very last place in the universe for falseness. 

And if you’re in Job’s kitchen right now, you need truth, sitting alongside, praying, breathing-in/breathing-out.  You’re with Jacob at the Jabok River crossing, my friend in pain.

So, struggle; but in your struggle, sit still and wait for God to speak. 

He does, you know.

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[1] Genesis 32

[2] Psalms 73:26  

While You're Waiting for God to Answer - Part Three

Wednesday, August 27, 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)

We’re learning lessons this week about suffering from a champion sufferer, Job.

Yesterday we learned (in the poor example of Job’s friends) that just because there’s a break in the conversation, that doesn’t mean it’s time to open your mouth and insert your foot.  Imagining you speak for God is worse than foolish – it is damaging to those who are waiting for any word of hope or relief.  We learned – don’t speak for God.

LESSON #2 - DON'T SPEAK BEFORE GOD

Mrs. Job took one look at her formerly powerful, now pitiful husband, and told him to forget everything he ever believed about God and just end it all…die…fall on the sword!  Job looked up from his pain and growled, You talk like a foolish woman!

(He had to be in a lot of pain…no husband in his right mind talks like that to his wife if he values his life; unless it’s by cell phone).

Job’s wife wasn’t just being sarcastic with her advice; she probably could not stand to see her man suffering.  He had every imaginable kind of pain – physical, emotional, relational, financial and family.  He’d lost everything in his life except the boils.

With so much of mankind’s humanitarian efforts over the centuries aimed at alleviating pain and suffering, you have to know we take that seriously; and so did Job’s wife.

She took it seriously; but she took it beyond her understanding.

So often we are tempted to offer quick solutions, based on so-called wisdom.  It’s fine to offer solutions, but if it is to be a wise solution, it must be based on what God says.  The prophet Zechariah warned, "Be still before the Lord, all mankind..."[1]

God has the last word (no matter what), and we are wise to hear it BEFORE we make our plans firm, or our speeches heard.  David had a wonderful intention to build the Lord a temple.  He only wanted to honor the God who had been so faithful to him.  The only problem was it was not God's plan for David to build that temple.  Don't speak for God, or before God speaks.

When you’re up against it, patience is God’s way.  Often it’s not the easiest way, but we are called to be His, to trust Him in the worst of times, as well as when the sun is shining.

Remember that when Satan whispers “suicide” in your ear.  It won’t sound foreboding like the sound of SUICIDE; it will sound much friendlier, dignified, or even trendy.  There will be plenty of platitudes to support putting an end to the pain. 

          ·        God really wouldn’t want you to suffer like this, would he?

          ·        You don’t have to suffer; this makes no sense – you deserve better.

Some pain is inexplicable, unimaginable and seems so unendurable. 

But at the end of the day life is worth even that; and that is how precious YOUR life is to your Heavenly Father.  He should know; He suffered the cross FOR your life.

For You, Today…

If you’re up against it – so much pain you don’t think you can hold on.

Call a friend, your pastor, a neighbor; they won’t have all the words but they don’t need words; they simply need to be able to sit with you through the pain.

My friend in pain, sit still and wait for God to speak.

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[1] Zechariah 2:13

While You're Waiting for God to Answer Part Two

Tuesday, August 26, 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)

LESSON #1 - DON'T SPEAK FOR GOD

Mrs. Job had decided that God had forgotten the Job's address.  Her husband had messed-up somewhere, and it was so bad nothing could ever fix it!  The only choice left was suicide. 

Human beings seldom know God's reasoning for why things happen.  (At least He never asks me before He does stuff!)  We run afoul of common sense when we attempt to interpret for others what God intends; He is God, and able to speak for Himself.  Eventually, Job did complain about God's program, and demanded an answer.  At the end of the story[1] Job is humbled by God's answers. 

It is wrong to ALWAYS judge tragedy, sickness, and loss as a mark of God's disapproval; God's ways are indeed higher than ours. 

Job's friends thought they had it all figured out.  They did a friendly thing in coming to sit with Job for three days.  But when they started opening their mouths, trying to speak for God, they stuck their collective feet in them.  With their judgments on what was wrong in Job's life they offered their own version of Mrs. Job's "curse God and die." 

Be careful not to speak for God...you don't have the credentials.  God may be using tragedy in your life, or the life of someone you know to bring about some very holy things.  Remember the prodigal son?  He was a lot closer to success when he was learning in the pigpen, than when he'd first arrived as a rich kid, with all the trimmings.

Despite the wrong-headed thinking (and speaking) of Job’s band of friends and Job’s wife, Job needed them all.  Somehow their foolishness helped frame God’s real answer to Job in a way that eventually turned on the light bulb of reason.

For You, Today…

When you’re up against it, don’t despise the community around you, even when they suggest goofy solutions, or make really exasperating statements about why you’re on God’s hit list.  (Remember, you’re part of that community and have probably been on the other side of somebody’s pain).

Sit in the ashes when life makes no sense, and the walls have caved-in; loss like that calls for grieving!

But don’t speak for God, and don’t leave God or your community as a knee-jerk reaction to the unfairness of it all.  Or for a bit of band aide relief, like drugs or alcohol.  The last thing you need for real problems is temporary solutions that create more problems.

Sit still and wait for God to speak.

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[1] Chapter 38

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.

·        

       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.