The Well
The Well |
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Connecting Hope to the Hurting | |
Monday
September 15, 2008
His wife said to him, "Are you still trying to be godly when God has done all
this to you? Curse him and die." But he replied, "You talk like some heathen
woman. What? Shall we receive only pleasant things from the hand of God and
never anything unpleasant?" So in all of this Job said nothing wrong."
Job
2:9-10
Satan has attacked again and Job now has sores all over his body. What a loving wife! And I thought I was bad?!
We all fail God so often. We get stuck in our problems and circumstances, until something or someone points us back to Jesus. I just love Paul's words in Romans 11:33-36: "Oh, what a wonderful God we have! How great are his wisdom and knowledge and riches! How impossible it is for us to understand his decisions and his methods! For who among us can know the mind of the Lord? Who knows enough to be his counselor and guide? And who could ever offer to the Lord enough to induce him to act? For everything comes from God alone. Everything lives by his power, and everything is for his glory. To him be glory evermore."
In these verses Paul is teaching the Romans about the awesome grace of God to the Gentiles. God's chosen people, the Jews, rejected Jesus as their Messiah, in turn, God opened the door to the Gentiles. Paul became God's spokesperson to the people so rejected by the Jews. As he teaches, he reaches a point where God's grace and goodness become overwhelming to him and he breaks out in praise to God.
How many times in 22 years have I been tempted to turn from God? More than I want to admit. How many times have I fallen? More than I can count. Our God, our Father, the Creator of the world has used the following scripture in my life to clean up my mistakes over and over. I pray these words will bring hope to you. "And we know that all that happens to us is working for our good if we love God and are fitting into his plans." Romans 8:28
Paul is right. We cannot understand the way God works. All He asks is that we trust Him with every situation, every heartbreak, every moment of bliss. In some way, in some small moment when we least expect it, He will use our deepest woe and turn it into a wonderful WOW moment for His glory and our maturity if we trust it all to Him. We may not get as bad as Job's wife, and become a total "discourager," but who could we encourage today?
Father, we recognize how much we have failed to trust You in every situation. Thank You for Your forgiveness and grace as we learn to trust You more.
