Job's Authentic Faith

****This Devotional Blog ties in with my Podcast, "Job's Authentic Faith" at http://tompounder.podomatic.com/ or go to iTunes and type in Tom Pounder under the Podcast menu.****

Opening Question:

What’s the worst thing that has ever happened to you? Please don’t answer aloud as it might be extremely personal, and, let’s be honest, how often do we keep tallies of the top 10 worse things that ever happened to us? Rarely.

But, think to yourself some of the worst things that have ever happened to you. Now, think, how did you respond to those events? Did you shut down, did you get angry, did you get wasted? What did you do?

Our faith in God and how we respond to our circumstances are directly related. To see how they relate, we are going to look at a man named Job.

Scripture

Read Job 1:13-22

What happened to Job? Let’s recount the tragedies in Job’s life:
1. His cattle and servants were killed
2. His sheep and servants were killed
3. His camels were stolen and servants killed
4. All his children were killed

Can you say bad day?!? How did Job respond?
· He tore his clothes, shaved his head
· Then, he worshipped God and did not sin

What doesn’t correlate here? What about Job’s response doesn’t make sense?
· After all the tragedy, he worshipped God
· I don’t know about you, and I’m a committed believer, but I don’t think I would be worshipping God right after all this has happened to me. I can think of many things I would do, but that isn’t one of the.
· I’m just being honest. I think I would eventually get to that point, but not immediately…not like Job

It’s bad enough that he lost all his profitability by losing his cattle, sheep and camels. Throw on to that the loss of all his children! I’ve know people who have lost a few loved ones over the course of a year – and that is bad, but to lose all your children in 1 day is insane.

And, what did he do? He worshipped God and didn’t sin!

Why would he do such a thing?!?
Because of his faith in God! I know it is hard to understand, but as Job said,
“Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”

He counted everything that he had as given to him from God – his cattle, wealth, and children as a gift from God. “The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.” Do you have this mindset?


Application

What can we learn from Job?

Our faith in God should never be determined by our circumstances. Good things and bad things are going to happen to you in life. Just because you go through a rough stretch doesn’t mean that God isn’t there and isn’t with you. On the contrary, he is there and he wants to help. Remember what we talked about last week – he understands and wants to help.

So, the next time something wacked happens to you, how are you going to respond? Are you going to bag what you know to be true about God because times are tough or are you going to stay strong with God knowing that at the very least, He:
· Understands what you are going through and can help you (Hebrews 4:14-16)
· He gives us grace (Hebrews 4:14-16)
· He loves us no matter what

In fact, right now, think of one circumstance, one thing in your life right now that you can commit over to God and trust Him to help you prevail. Write it down and pray that God will help you through it.

When we stay strong in our faith in God, he will help us overcome. He helped Job.

Read Job 42:12-15
“The LORD blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah, the second Keziah and the third Keren-Happuch. Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.”

God is there always and wants to help. He will provide, as He did with Job. The question is, will you give God the chance to provide and help you overcome?

Don’t give up on God!

Pray