I was reading Job yesterday. Chapter one: Job is introduced as a known, faithful, obedient and relentless follower of God. God offers Job to be tested by Satan. Job loses all his wealth, all his children are tragically killed, and his cattle are ransacked. Job's wife is the sole survivor and when you meet her character in chapter 2 you may wonder why. Yet, Job still praises God. Chapter 2: God offers Job again and Job loses his health. Job's wife "encourages" Job to just casually "curse God and die" - oh the picture of exhortation. Job's response?
"Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (ch.3, v.10)
Can we say heart-piercing?
mmm. Yowza!
How easy it is to complain. Ask anyone and I'm sure they could come up with a laundry list of frustrations in their little world. Hello? Could someone help me carry mine? And amidst my complaining I read the words, "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?"
ZING!
You know it's been a challenge to decipher the truth amid the lies we are whispered daily, sometimes nearly every minute. We're given the opportunity to follow truth to our Lord or follow lies to a desert-wandering path. And when we find ourselves out in left field, thanks to our apple-biting nature, we find the tumble weeds aren't enough company to sustain (oh but we're going to try first). And we need to prodigal it back to the Father with a list of apologies. But we have to first realize that the Father's perceived "pig slop" would be better than the dust we stand in before we can find ourselves robed and at His welcome-home-party table.
You know, it's so easy to get discouraged. Trials seem to constantly be hiring and for some reason we keep submitting our resumes, sometimes unknowingly.
Sometimes working out our salvation feels like a once-a-month shopping trip with the gimpy cart and a late-napping, fall-out expressing toddler. And it's in those moments that I desperately beg and plead for the Father to remind me of His open-door policy because it's so easy to feel like God's a complaint box that never gets weeded through. But no matter how many times I get stage fright and feel overcome by the serpent's whispering, I need to keep reminding myself that when that curtain comes down the only encore will belong to Jesus and Jesus ALONE!
- wrestling out this faith journey.
2 comments:
Oh, Monica. You definitely have a way with words. Thank you for sharing. And as I read, I find familiarity as well. How easy it is to give in or give up against the constant negative flow. How much more rewarding to look up instead. Thanks for the encouragement as you share your inner most thoughts.
Thanks, Mom. Hard lessons are... uhh... well... hard to learn and uh.. stuff. (wink). Love you. Glad you feel encouraged. Um... Abi's picking my nose, I need to go. =) It's a miracle I get any posts on this site sometimes. lol.
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