Monday, March 4, 2013

You Must’ve Messed Up Somewhere!

“Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”
Job 1:8
 
You love the Lord.
You serve Him faithfully from sun-up to sundown.
You have the kind of relationship with Him that inspires others.
Many ask: “What is the secret to your close relationship to God?”
You have a loving family, successful career and even the ‘white picket fence’ home.
Suddenly the bottom falls out of your world.
You lose your job, your child has a terminal illness and your wife announces she is leaving you for someone else.
You even discover dry rot in that white picket fence.
Was it something you did or failed to do in that ‘model’ relationship?
Not necessarily.
Even though you’re living for God, crisis can still happen in your life.
You need look no further than Job.
Job wasn’t an evil man who ‘got what he deserved’ in the sense that he reaped payback for a life spent in sin, far from God.
He was a righteous man who loved God and hated evil.
As a matter of fact, we might say that God gave the testimonial at the dinner in Job’s honor.
He wasn’t lauded by God for merely being in the top ten of his class.
God said: “There is no one on earth like him.”
Does your life top that?
Mine doesn’t either!
Yes, Job was living for God.
Yes, crisis came into his life.
No, it didn’t happen because he walked away from, or turned his back on, God.
You may find yourself at the most intimate and precious season of your life with the Lord and suddenly it seems as if your world was turned upside down.
What do you do at that point?
How do you respond?
Let’s take a look at that question this week.
But as we do, let’s not lose sight of the fact that crisis in your life does not automatically imply sin or wrongdoing that needs to be repented of.
Let’s understand how to deal with it and what God wants from us in it.
Let’s learn how to love God in and through the crisis!

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