By Jim Miller
Gray, Maine
At times we are confronted with situations we aren't sure we can endure. Some folks are faced with health issues, some face financial hardship, still others face a combination things they cannot control. Fear is a huge motivating factor in our lives. Fear at times will make us do things that we know we shouldn't it causes distress and sometimes causes us to sin against God.
I can remember times in my life when I have gotten down on my knees literally and asked God why is this happening to me and proclaiming I can't bare anymore Lord. Yet, here I am today still alive and still blessed. At times like this I can't help but think of Job. I have to stop and ask myself where is my faith? God has supplied all my needs all my life and maybe I was just to blind at the time to see it.
Consider this if you will……………..
Job's life is an example for Christians everywhere. There are many lessons that Christians can learn from the story of Job. Here are a few:
1. Serving God is a lifelong job (1:1-5). Christians need to sacrifice and pray every single day of their lives in order to go on to perfection. We can also help others by praying for them like Job did. "Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" (Jas. 5:16).
2. The righteous are not exempt from suffering. Just because someone is poor or ill does not mean that he is a sinner. We must not confuse wealth with approval from God or illness with sin. See Matthew 9:21-22 and John 9:2-3.
3. Suffering can come "overnight" (1:13-19). No one knows what will be on the morrow. Christians need to be ready for trials. James 4:14 says, "Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away."
4. Suffering can be devastating (2:1-8). Be humble in the sight of the Lord and in regard to your ability to endure.
5. Friends and family cannot be relied upon in the end (2:9-13). The importance of individual faith needs to be emphasized in the lives of Christians everywhere. Each individual is accountable for his own life. Well-meaning friends and family may give bad advice, but obedience to the Lord's commandments will ultimately always be right.
No one not even God has said life would be easy. But if we will put our faith, hope, and trust in Him who created us we can endure.
Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin; And yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which to day is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith? Mat: 6: 26-30.
