Have you ever gotten frustrated with God because of the overwhelming amount of life situations hitting you in the face? Like “Hello? God? Why are you letting this happen?!” Especially when you feel like you are closer to God than you’ve ever been. It’s so confusing. You may think your prayers are hitting the ceiling and bouncing back. You may think God’s hearing you – just ignoring you. Some of us even resort to thinking that somehow we still just aren’t good for God to care to listen and lend a hand. Well…do I have news for you.
I’ve read the book of Job once or twice now, and while I know that doesn’t sound like many, go read it. It comes across depressing. You feel heart-sick for Job. Ugh. It’s hard to read. Gut-wrenching even. However…today I saw Job in a smidge of a different light. As I am doing a Bible study through James, Job’s name appeared. (Huh? Fancy that.)
The more I read the beginning and ending of Job, the more I understood James 5:11.
“Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.“
God never intended on Job to feel abandoned by Him. God’s entire purpose of heart-breaking, continuous, and relentless hardships were to prove Job’s “blameless,” “upright,” “God-fearing” faith. God wanted to boast to the devil about His servant. Wow. God wants to boast to Satan about those faithful to Him. Boast about you and me. If that doesn’t humble you and boost your trust in the Lord, I don’t know what will.
In the end, God rewarded Job’s faithfulness by giving back more than He allowed to be taken away! Oh how the Lord is “passionate” about us – His sons and daughters – and is incredibly “merciful” towards our needs. Plus, think about this: “How will we ever know what God’s accomplished in us if He doesn’t show us? (Even if that means He chooses trials to show us the strength we’ve gained through Him.) And how will Satan otherwise be proved a liar? (Sometimes we can only see truth when lies are tested.)” -Beth Moore
God is the only one who sees our lives from a throne’s-eye view. We have to understand that. Our steadfastness in Him cannot be based upon our knowledge of a situation or understanding of the question “Why?” Our steadfastness in Him MUST thrive off of knowing that He has our life in His hands – even beyond the earthly realm we can see. We fight a spiritual battle every single day as children of God due to striving to further God’s gospel and kingdom.
Living in this fast-paced world where everyone expects exactly what they want exactly when they want it kills one of our fruits of the spirit – patience. Patience is an easy word to say, and a much harder principle to learn. Regardless, remember to be patient through the trails you’re facing. You may not see their purpose, because you may be looking through the wrong lens. Try looking through a version of the throne’s-eye lens. See things any more clearly now?
