I captured this frozen bubble the other day, and thought it was amazingly beautiful, but I knew, that for all its beauty, it was extremely fragile. Strange as it may seem, this got me thinking about my relationship with God, in particular how strong it was, and did I trust Him?
Consider yours now, what would your response be. Probably, like most people, your first instinct would be to say strong. We all like to think that our faith is solid, but what happens to it when it’s tested? Perhaps, like Job, you’ve suffered a terrible loss, or maybe a serious health problem has plagued you. In this verse, Job is visited by one of his well-intentioned friends. As you may recall, this poor man had lost everything; children, livestock and even his own health. It was a very bad situation, one that most folks would have shattered under. To make matters worse, he had been a very good, and godly man, so why had these series of tragedies befallen him? That’s exactly what his friends wanted to know. Had he forgotten God, even for a moment? He must have done something to deserve this torment.
All Job’s problems aside, the crux of this story, the gem of great value we must glean from his trials isn’t what he suffered, but how going through them grew his faith. Instead of caving in, and cursing God, as his wife suggested, he kept honoring and praising him. He never forgot God, and was fully aware that he gives, and takes away. While other’s faith, when they come under fire, may dissolve like a frozen bubble, his developed layers and depth which sustained him despite the circumstances.
It’s hard to read the story of Job. No one wants to suffer, but at some point, all of us living in this imperfect world will. Is God up in his celestial office pushing disaster buttons all day? Of course not, but all of us living in the shambles of Adam’s mess, will have some rough patches. Jillian Michaels, my exercise guru, likes to say that as we strengthen our physical bodies it will effect every other aspect of our lives. She always mentions this during the most difficult section, just when you feel like giving up. Do you feel like that ? Are you dealing with something that makes your trust in God feel like a fragile, frozen bubble? Bad news: Merely having a strong faith won’t make it vanish overnight. Good news: with a heart and mind focused on God, and not the adversity, that bubble will become as dense as a lead ball-bearing, and the problem easier to handle. When the trials come, and they will, remember that the word strength is found 517 times in scripture, fragile only 3. That’s a promise to bulk up on. “He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak.” Isaiah 40:29
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