From Anger To Faith

Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast to your integrity?  Curse God and die!"  But he said  to  her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks.  Shall we indeed accept good from from God, and shall we not accept adversity?"  In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
Job 2: 9-10 NKJV

Whenever I am having those feelings that my Lord has somehow forgotten me, I turn to the story of Job.  Here was a man who most certainly had reason to lift a complaint to God.  For satan had taken his wealth, possesions and family.  Indeed, he was a broken man.  Yet, it was out of Jobs afflictions that I have learned a very important lesson for my own life.  I may have a bad day.  I may lose someone close to me.  I may have financial difficulties.  However, despite all of my setbacks, I can rest assured of one very important truth.   God has never left me.  No, for how can a God who loved me enough to send His only son to take on my sin leave me?  How could one who has promised to never leave me or forsake me suddenly break that promise and depart from my life?

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.  Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.  For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhps for a good man someone would  even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Romans 5: 4-8 NKJV

In Romans 5, the apostle Paul gives what some may call a impossible task.  That being to glory in our tribulations!  Did Job glory in his afflictions?  No, but Job also knew in his heart that God would provide for him.  And so it is with Pauls message here.  Yes, I may be afflicted by lifes circumstances, but I can be assured that God has not abandoned me.  Not only that, but those very same afflictions that trouble me for a season in my life, produce something inside of me that is of greater value.  That being character and hope.  Was it not Martin Luther King Junior who longed for the day when men would be judged for the content of their character?  The trials I endure, while they may seem unbearable for a time, are never guaranteed to last.

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
Galations 2:20 NKJV

What of those times where I've felt as if my Lord had abandoned me?   Well, not only has He never left my side, but Christ now dwells in me.  Whatever it is that I am experiencing, I am experiencing it through Christ who is in me!   There is nothing that I do that Jesus is not intimately involved in.  Whatever it is I see, hear or experience, I do as Christ who is in me.  There is no longer any need for me to worry that God has abandoned me in any way.  Far from abandoning me, God loved me enough for Jesus to share Himself in me.

~Scott~