April 27, 2009

  • Come Forth As Gold

    This is a repost from July 08.

    "But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold."  Job 23:10

    gold

    I don't like to be uncomfortable, y'all.  I like my air conditioning.  I like my health.  I whine when I have a cold.  I like my kids to be healthy.  They whine when they have colds and I fret like the dickens.  I like my life easy.  I want a well stocked pantry.  A well funded bank account.  I want a dependable vehicle.  I want my husband to have a good job.  You get the idea.  I wanna be comfortable.  I wanna have all "God's blessings".  I complain when I think I don't have them. 

    Job lost it all.  That is a bad place to be.  As bad as things were, and they were really bad sad, Job at the bottom found comfort. 

    In our distress the book of Job speaks to us and says, “God knows my distress. God thinks it is unfair and God believes my wounding is without merit."  Job understood something about the sovereignty of God. Satan was the instrument of pain but God was testing Job.

    The tough parts of life are tests.  These are tests that develop the character of Jesus within us.  "I shall come forth as gold."  What a statement of faith! Stripped of everything, suffering from head to toe and persecuted by his closest friends he knew something which Paul would later make clear to us. “All things work together for good to those who love the Lord…” (Rom. 8:28)  

    No matter what I face, no matter the way I take, through those trials, I come forth as gold.