Job 19:25 AMPC
For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, and at last He [the Last One] will stand upon the earth.
This was the man Job, who God Himself testified about to the devil as a man who was upright, who feared God and avoided evil. Can God actually say the same about me? It is easy to fool men into applauding my earthly efforts, because men do not see my heart. However, with a God you cannot deceive, the standards are different. It has to be from a place of faithful and consistent uprightness for God to stake his name and reputation on Job. The devil did all he could, but God would not let the devil touch Job's life. All Job's children died on the same day, as well as all his possessions. It was a day of continuous cycles of disastrous news. Even his wife thought it was pointless to keep holding to God, and she advised her husband to curse God and die. However, a relationship with God is the secret to staying strong, in the face of the most bitter experiences. Can God count on me to hold on, even when everything else is falling to pieces around me?
Job's friends all had opinions, but the general consensus was that Job was suffering because of sin. He had to have done something wrong for him to be suffering this much. Be careful of making assumptions about people or situations you do not fully understand. Be careful of promoting views on issues that you do not know the foundations. These friends were angry that Job kept protesting his innocence, instead of owning up to wrongdoing, and that God was justified to punish him. As I walk on this earth, the only view that counts is God's. All other men are entitled to their opinions, but all I must concern myself with must be the will of God alone. Jon knew God, and knew what God could do. He also knew that whatever God allowed was temporary, but there was an eternity to look forward to. Am I preparing for the eternal, or am I still distracted by the earthly and the temporal ?
No matter what goes wrong down here on earth, I must never forget that this is just a temporal phase. Job knew that, and it is also important that I know that, and pattern my life after that fact. A time comes when all I see or experience today will be gone forever, because the One who holds it all together will come back for me. He is my Redeemer, only if I have surrendered my life to Him. That which he cannot control or influence, He cannot save. He is the First as well as the Last; he made the earth, and this present heaven and earth will give way to a new heaven and earth, in which righteousness will reign. I must keep an eye on the earthly, ensuring that my life's pursuits and priorities line up with God's will, as I prepare for the eternal. May there be no earthly experience so strong that it will be able to distract me from that which is really important. Jesus returns soon; may no one or anything be able to keep me from going with Him. God's time of favour is here.
No comments:
Post a Comment