Welcome back to my blog, friends!
Tonight I am going to give you all some insight on what has been on my heart recently. The beginning of last week (Monday, May 28, 2012) I feel that God has blessed me and delivered me from an extensive period of almost total darkness. He opened my eyes and made me realize how I need to spend time every day in prayer and to study into His word and to surround myself with fellow believers and followers of Christ. Almost immediately I felt that the dark times were finally over and God has finally answered my prayers that I have been sending up there. I have been taking time each day to spill out my heart to the all loving, all knowing, all powerful God and I feel that He is working within me to help me to cope and become a better overall person.
This past Monday (June 4, 2012) I decided to take time to read some of God's word and I didn't know where to start. So what I did was I turned to a random page in the Bible and whatever book I opened to, I would start from the beginning of that book and I would start my reading there. By no coincidence, I opened up to the book of Job in the Old Testament. I read through the first seven chapters and I thought to myself "Gee, I really could have used this book before last Monday...! I'll continue reading". I had no idea that what I was reading would be exactly what I needed to hear within the next hours and days. The book of Job in a nutshell is about a man who was seen favored by God. Job had everything he could have asked for: a wife, children whom he loved, the respect of his neighbors, money, land, and he didn't take it for granted. Job gave thanks to God at any opportunity he could. One day, the Devil goes to God and implores that He thinks of Job. The Devil suggested that Job was only so "righteous" because he clearly was favored by God and had such an easy life. So after this, God allows the Devil to take literally everything Job had and also God allows him to inflict much physical harm on Job so long as he did not kill him.
During this time, Job curses his own life and he curses the day of his birth and goes through extensive suffering and mourning; yet he never curses the name of God and he never loses his faith in God. At the conclusion of the story, one of Job's companions ends up reminding him of all God's greatness and pretty much calls Job a fool for doubting God and by cursing his own life. God then came to Job and declared all that He has done and further reminded him that He is all powerful and He is the ultimate authority. After this, Job repents for the way he has been and for thinking himself righteous in the eyes of God and for thinking himself without fault. After this, God blessed Job with much more than he had originally started with, much more than he ever imagined possible.
Recently, my friends, I realized that my dark days don't seem to be completely over. What God has blessed me with seems to have left as quickly and unexpectedly as it has come. The only difference between now and before is this time I won't give up, I will continue to pray and to read the word of God. I have faith that God will bring me out of this and carry me to something much better than I could ever possibly imagine. Job 5:7 says that "Man is born to trouble as surely as sparks fly upward". What I gathered from this verse and the verses following is this: Even though man is born to trouble, God will stay faithful to those who remain faithful to Him even in troublesome times. Job 5:11 says "He sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety". We all must go through our trials and hard times WILL come to each and every one of us, but we cannot let this discourage us and more importantly we cannot lose our faith in God because if we stay strong, the hard times lead only to something much better than we originally had. We learn in Job 11 that we must go to God with a heart ready to accept Him and His work. Worship Him and pray even in times of trouble and in that moment, forget your iniquities and let God heal you.
The word tells us in Job 22:21 - 23 "Now acquaint yourself with Him, and "be at peace; Thereby good will come to you. Receive, please, instruction from His mouth, And lay up His words in your heart. If you return to the Almighty, you will be built up; you will remove iniquity far from your tents. I will continue at Job 22:25 - 30: "Yes, the Almighty will be your gold and your precious silver; For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift your face to God. You will make your prayer to Him, He will hear you and you will pay your vows. You will also declare a thing, and it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways. When they cast you down, and you say, 'Exaltation will come!' Then He will save the humble person. He will even deliver one who is not innocent." My friends we need to acquaint ourselves with God, indulge in His word, continuously and vigorously pray, praise, worship and seek God and listen for His instructions. The most amazing thing about this all is verse 30: "He will even deliver one who is not innocent". The love God has for us becomes even more apparent in Job 23: 6-7: "Would He contend with me in His great power? No! But He would take note of me. There the upright could reason with Him, And I would be delivered forever from my Judge." God offers us who are far from innocent a chance to be reconciled with Him and escape judgement EVEN in the Old Testament before the sacrifice Christ made for us.
I apologize for the length of this post, my friends, but this post contains an entire summary of the book of Job as well as my notes on the book. It is true that I have a lot on my mind and my heart right now. Discouragement and despair has taken over me, but through an examination of the book of Job, my burden feels much lighter. I will continue through these times, whether calm or rough waters, and I will continue to trust in the Almighty God. I hope that through my troubles, my readers can recall this post in troublesome times of their own. We can pull through any situation we are placed into if we put our trust in the right place. Stay strong, my friends and remember to unify with one another. We all need people to support us and that's why God places the people He does in our lives. Some will stay, others may not, but don't despair because God loves you more than you know and more than you deserve.
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