job// [part 1]
I’ve been reading the book of Job using The Bible Recap podcast. This book used to be my least favorite book of the Bible because it’s so hard to chew on. Through pain, it looks like God is allowing the enemy to continually beat up on Job for the purpose of winning a bet. Job loses everything, and to top it off, his friends show up on the scene to tell him that he’s not as good of a person as he thinks he is. God shows up later, but not before all of the damage is done.
I have been in a season before where I’ve felt like Job, and have been really bitter towards God for allowing so much to happen before He finally showed up.
Can I be REALLY honest? I’ve been so hurt that I’ve been in a place where I didn’t think that the restoration outweighed the pain.
Have you ever had moments/seasons like that?
Reading Job this time was different, though. This time it was pointed out that while Job was innocent of the things his friends accused him of, he wasn’t innocent of the pride and entitlement in his heart. I LOVE what Tara Leigh Cobble says about this, “We have to be careful to not think that living right is a bargaining tool to God giving us a good life.” This difficult experience for Job exposed some things in his heart that he didn’t realize was there.
Same with us.
Even when attached to good works, pride and entitlement are ugly. But the good news is that God is kind enough to purge those things from His kids.
God did restore Job in the end, but it wasn’t before God helped Job come to a place of true humility.
“I know that you can do all things,
and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you;
therefore I despise myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.”
(Job 42:2-3, 5-6 ESV)
Y’all, we have to come to a place where we realize that we’re not that big. We have to humble ourselves and trust God. Not all circumstances are lovely, and some are genuinely unfair. But in the middle of hard circumstances, we have to watch what comes out of us. Are we bearing good fruit in hard seasons or not-so-good fruit? It’s hard, but remember, He will work everything for our good in the end.
(I cannot wait to unpack this book some more!)
