Stop Listening, Start Telling...

Reading through the book of Job, you begin to see the struggle Job was experiencing. He was literally suffering physically, relationally, and emotionally. He had just lost all of his children, a grief most would never recover from. He suffered physically; boils from head to toe. And to add to this unbearable infliction, Job’s friends have now falsely accused him of hiding a secret sin and demanding him to repent. All of this would’ve killed 99.9% of us. Not Job, even though he wanted to die, to the point he even stated that he wished he had never been born. This struggle is a perfect example of the battle all of us face when adversity pays us a visit. We experience a wide array of emotions, from “poor me” to “”I don’t deserve this”. But we also know the truth as well. This book of Job shows the two sides of a man, one that follows his feelings, and one that knows the truth and acts on it. We learn that we must go with what we know to be true, even at the expense of our feelings. Instead of listening to our selves, we need to tell ourselves what we know to be true. Think about it: if you base your life on how you feel, what’s it going to be like? A roller coaster of a ride; an unstable, inconsistent, wishy-washy, non-stable existence. But if we base our life on what we know to be true; God is sovereign, He has our back, He loves us enough to give us “free will”, then we can experience the peace that only He can give. When we align our will with His will, we are more willing to let go, and move on, than if we refuse to let Him be in charge of our lives. The point here is this: even though he suffered, Job knew his true alliance was to God, His Rock. We must realize this same truth and do whatever it takes to ween ourselves from the bottle of selfishness. If we don’t, when adversity pays us a visit, we will not make it through. We will become bitter and useless. Is that what you want? I certainly don’t. Life is hard, I don’t need to make it any harder. Remember Who your allegiance is to, and act accordingly.

3 “You must defend my innocence, O God, since no one else will stand up for me. Job 17:3