Becoming Job

Becoming Job                                                    April 2019

For nine years I have attended a Tuesday night men’s meeting that includes a testimony. The usual timeline for the man who is speaking ramps up from a youth in rebellion to a sterling success with all the treats which the physical world offers.  Cars, properties, family, and luxury are off the charts by global standards as part of the tale.  Pride is there as well. Missing is the complete lack of the blessings the spiritual realm provides. Then comes the fall.

The story of this man Job is different. He has it all as the book opens. Satan confronts God with the proposition that if all the wealth is removed from Job, the man will deny his spiritual faith in God who has provided the largess. The man is brutally assaulted by the Devil and loses his children, his health, and his riches. Job does not waver. This is the story of spiritual continuity and perseverance in the face calamity.

Isn’t it a shame that so many of us start with all of the blessings but have to lose them in order to find our way to the Great Provider?

Why is this?  I believe for us the enemy attacks through complacency and ingratitude. We feel that we have earned the entitlement to this wealthy status because WE worked so hard to achieve these accomplishments. We deny God‘s role in that process. Only after the whipsaw effect which creates the absence of these things do we realize the efforts of He Who Gives All.

Then we understand the value of what is lost, and sometimes lost for the rest of our lives on this Earth. We become Job when we have nothing left but a close spiritual relationship with God. Yet, this is the greatest possession we will ever have. Do you recall what Jesus owned? That’s right! Nothing of this Earth; no cattle, no vineyards, no home, no wife, no children, and no chariots. He slept as a guest in the homes of others. He slept in boats. Yet He had his relationship with his Father.

Job had his faith and his love of God within his inventory. It seems many of us must lose much to find that same faith.   It is within reach just for the asking.   You can have it when next you pray.