Job 2:10
" ...shall we accept good from The Lord and not trouble? In all this, Job did not sin in what he said."
I am always so challenged by the life of Job. This book in the bible is one that will never fit into our perfectly drawn map or plan on how to live a "blessed" life! Job was a man who loved God, serving and honoring Him in everything he did and yet he massively suffered!
Suffering is something the devil loves to use to cast doubt on the goodness of God. He does this because It does not match our human understanding of what goodness is. When trouble or hardship come our way Satan looks for an open door to whisper lies into our ears about whether we are loved by God.
Suffering left alone results in desperation and desperate people do and say things they would never do and say under normal conditions. yet somehow, Job suffered and managed to watch what he allowed himself to say about God. No matter what happened or how much worse it got, before it got better, He did not sin by what he said.
Suffering in and of itself feels like starving for bread but being given rocks or gravel to chew on instead. Could it be possible for God to take gravel and create bread? Can there really be in exchange for ashes, beauty? Is this possible really?
This is why I love that God added the story of Job to His Word. It IS possible for God to take everything the devil has tried to destroy us with and turn it all around. It is WHO He is. We are far better off than Job. When Job faced his moment of suffering, Jesus had not yet come to earth. He had not yet poured out grace for us at the Cross. Yet, Job still believed.
Today, wherever we sit in our own personal experiences in times of trouble we have the gift of Jesus with His presence and his PROMISES to us. These promises cause the gravel to become loaves of bread. Because of Jesus, we can take the good with the trouble and the trouble with the good. Not flippantly. Not easily. But through the lens of the Cross it can be done. Why do we look at the Cross? Because there could be no greater suffering than dying for the sin of the entire world. Yet even here God used the suffering and the dying of Jesus to bring victory and healing. Because of Jesus there is never a time when all hope is gone! Forever and always we have this hope.
If you are in a place today where you are experiencing rocks in your mouth and you long for loaves of bread, lean closely in to Jesus. His love is the same for you in "this" as it is for you on days circumstances seem to support what we feel as love. One thing I know for sure, God is good. God is faithful. God does things past what we can find out or understand. He is the only one who can take rocks and make them the freshest and most satisfying BREAD for our souls!
Romans 8:34-39
"... Christ Jesus, who died- more than that, who was raised to life is at the right hand of the Father INTERCEDING for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?....No in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor ANYTHING else in ALL creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Jesus Christ our Lord."
