February 10th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

Yesterday we closed the “Should we accept good from God and not trouble?” post with this question:

What was it that allowed Job to respond this way?  To lose everything he held dear and fall on the ground in worship?  For the honest cry of his heart to be “may the name of the Lord be praised?”

Thank you to those of you who took the time to join the discussion – so many great thought-provoking comments!

One of the things I have ended up discussing frequently with friends in recent months is keeping a proper balance in our view of God.

Sometimes we meditate only on God’s love – we content ourselves with a very “fluffy” and shallow view of God; a view of God that expects Him to do whatever it takes to keep us happy and comfortable.  We are shocked and sometimes even angry when He allows pain and difficulty into our lives – and we resort to that “how could a good and loving God do this to me?” question.

Sometimes we emphasize God’s sovereignty and holiness and overlook His love.  We develop almost a fatalistic view of our relationship with Him – expecting Him to make us suffer and bring every imaginable difficulty into our lives.  Rather than living in joy and freedom, feeling secure in His love and grace, we cower before Him and wait for the giant shoe in the sky to fall on us.

Both of these extremes are wrong – both simplify God’s incredible nature and make Him too small.  There must be a balance. We must keep both views of God in tension in order to land on Truth.  Keeping both sides of God’s nature in view makes our God big enough to handle our questions – big enough to handle our suffering.  Big enough to trust.

When I have walked with God and am unshakably confident in both His love and grace as well as in His sovereignty and holiness, I can face the difficulties of life with confidence.  I know that my Father who knows and loves me has deemed this trial to be of benefit to me in some way.  I know that He is not capricious – He is not making me suffer out of neglect or lack of concern.  I can trust that He sees the bigger picture.  I can also trust that He will walk with me every step of the way – He will never leave me.

Remember back to Job – Job didn’t have the privilege of reading the Job 1:6-12.  He didn’t know that God had lovingly held him up for Satan to inspect – because God treasured him so dearly and was glorified through Job’s faithful life.  He didn’t know that God had allowed Satan to afflict him within very specific boundaries.

From Job’s perspective, all he knows is that he has faithfully walked with God… and then in one single day he lost everything he held dear.  This was no random coincidence – clearly this was a supernatural occurrence.

But Job responds with unshakable faith.   He knows that God is good.  He knows that he deserves nothing on his own – naked I came from my mother’s womb and naked I will depart… He knows that God is sovereign.

And so he can fall to the ground in worship and say, surely with a tremor in His voice – “may the name of the Lord be praised.”

Do you find that you tend to get out of balance in your view of God?  Which end of the spectrum do you tend to overemphasize (love and grace, or sovereignty and holiness)?  Do you think this changes how you respond to difficulties in your life?

All the posts in this series are indexed here.

February 9th, 2010 by Kristi Stephens

In the last post we paraphrased Satan’s accusations against Job: “Job is only faithful to You because You have blessed him. Take away the blessing, and he’ll curse You just like I did.”

Chilling accusations.

Do you ever wonder that about yourself?  Do you hear gut-wrenching stories of pain and loss from other people and wonder if you would stay faithful to the Lord?

I know I have wondered that about myself. So today, let’s take a closer look at Job’s story.

In chapter one we find Job losing everything in one day.  Everything.

His 500 yoke of oxen, 500 donkeys, and every servant with them except one.
His 7,000 sheep and every servant with them except one.
His 3,000 camels and every servant with them except one.
…and every one of his seven sons and three daughters.

And then notice Job 1:20-22 -

At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head.

Then he fell to the ground in worship and said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

and naked I will depart.

The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away;

may the name of the LORD be praised.”

In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

He fell to the ground in worship!  That gives me chills!

Not only that, but in the next chapter when we find Job being afflicted with physical suffering the vast majority of us could never even come close to comprehending, notice his words and the statement about him in 2:10 -

“…Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”  In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.

December 9th, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

Last Wednesday I posed the question, “is it wrong to serve God because it benefits us?” We looked at the fact that while living wisely and righteously often benefits us and makes our lives easier and free of self-inflicted pain, having a warped perspective on this causes us to jump to the conclusion that God isn’t being fair. [I said we would continue it "tomorrow," which apparently actually means "sometime next week." Sorry if I left you hanging.] :)

So, today we are going to turn our attention to the story of Job. Job seems to be one of those books that we are all somewhat familiar with, but sometimes miss the point. I hope you join us in coming posts as we continue our way through the book.

Today, I’d like us to observe what we know about Job from the beginning of this great book.

This man was rich – rich in material and nonmaterial blessings. Truly, he was living ‘the good life.’

•Job 1:2-3 – “Seven sons and three daughters were born to him. His possessions also were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, 500 female donkeys, and very many servants; and that man was the greatest of all the men of the east.”

His spiritual resume looks pretty fantastic, too…

•Job 1:1 – “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.”

Job 1:4-5 – “His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.”

•Job 1:8 – ‘The LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”‘

Satan’s reply to God’s glowing report about Job is chilling to me -

Then Satan answered the LORD, “Does Job fear God for nothing? “Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.
“But put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.”
Job 1:9-11

Satan’s retort boils down to: Job is only faithful to You because You have blessed him. Take away the blessing, and he’ll curse You just like I did.

In other words – he’s only serving You because it’s good for him.

We’ll continue this tomorrow…

In the meantime, what are your thoughts about God’s discussion of Job’s righteousness with Satan? How does that make you feel that He knows us like that, takes delight in those who follow, lift them up for examination in front of Satan?

Image from freefoto.com

December 3rd, 2009 by Kristi Stephens

After a brief hiatus, today we’re plunging back into our “how could a good God…” series.

Ready for today’s question?

Is it wrong to serve God and live righteously because it benefits us?

This is an important question to consider, as our knee-jerk reaction to suffering often boils down to, “why me, God? I’ve faithfully _______ [fill in the blank with list of righteous acts.]” We accuse God of not being fair, as though an easy life insulated from suffering is our just due for all that we have given to God.

From the fall of man, Satan has used the same lie over and over again – God is withholding something good from you. God doesn’t have your best in mind. God isn’t fair.

Now, what makes this question trickier is that often following God does benefit us. Now, I’m not talking about benefiting us from an eternal perspective – obviously knowing God has untold benefits from eternity in heaven to daily peace.

What I’m talking about is just ease of life. Fearing God and living wisely makes life easier in many ways. Solomon speaks of this fact in Ecclesiastes. [If you missed the "What does it mean to be 'wise'" post back when we were looking at Proverbs, you might want to take a minute to read this and clarify the definition of 'wisdom.']

•Wisdom helps us live with purpose, recognizing the brevity of life (Ecclesiastes 7:1-5)

•Wisdom balances and preserves (Ecclesiastes 7:10-12)

•Living wisely helps us avoid self-inflicted suffering and negative consequences (Ecclesiastes 10:8-10)

•Wise choices and investing wisely helps us deal with life’s uncertainties and unexpected set-backs (Ecclesiastes 11:1-6)

These truths are easy to see, even in our modern day.

• Most believers in Jesus that I know live with a much greater and clearer sense of purpose in their lives than the unbelievers around me. Decisions are more clear, their worth is obvious to them. Life is easier to handle because they understand the bigger picture.

• Followers of Christ who have avoided self-destructive behaviors like promiscuous sex, drug and alcohol use, and breaking laws of all kinds tend to have an easier go of things… they’re not dealing with unplanned pregnancies, guilt and baggage from past sexual relationships, addictions and the health problems that go with them, jail time… even speeding tickets. Life typically is easier when we live wisely and avoid self-inflicted pain.

Obviously these are just a few of the myriad of examples that we could cite for how wise living makes life easier. It’s common sense. That’s really what wisdom is – it’s common sense!

Here’s the rub…

Sometimes, the people who follow God with all their hearts, who obey their authorities, who make the wisest of decisions… sometimes these people suffer immense pain in this world. Here are some cases that I personally have known of:

• The Christian couple who were virgins on their wedding day and long for a child deals with numerous miscarriages, infertility, or the agony of the death of their young child.

• Godly people who have been excellent stewards of their bodies and made wise decisions suffer and die of lung cancers that are extremely rare outside of life-long smokers.

• A hard-working godly man who loves his family and does everything he can to wisely support them financially loses his health from accident or debilitating disease, and the resulting loss of income and mounting medical bills on top of his ailing health becomes more than the family can bear.

And our hearts cry out… God, this isn’t fair!

To be continued tomorrow, when we will look more closely at the life of suffering, righteous man by the name of Job.

All the posts in this series are indexed here. 

Image from freefoto.com