Miracle Storm posted in message #1:
What is up with poor Job man?
Job is an example for us of patience in suffering:
James 5:10 ...Take, my brethren, the prophets, who
have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example
of suffering affliction, and of patience.
11 Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have
heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end
of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of
tender mercy.
Miracle Storm posted in message #1:
Did God have something to prove?
When God ultimately delivered Job from all of his
suffering and blessed him with tremendous blessings,
God proved that He has pity on and shows tender mercy
toward those who continue to love Him even in their
suffering.
Miracle Storm posted in message #1:
Why would he allow satan such rights to take
everything from job except for his life? Did He want
to prove satan wrong.
God's wanting to prove Satan wrong would have been
just one of the reasons for His allowing Satan rights
to take everything from Job except for his life.
There are at least three other reasons: 1. So that we
would have an amazing example of patience in
suffering. 2. So that God could show that He has pity
on and shows tender mercy toward those who continue
to love Him even in their suffering. And 3. So that
Job's character could be blessed and made even better
through his suffering:
Romans 5:3 ...And not only so, but we glory in
tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh
patience ...
Patience is the first attribute of agape love:
1 Corinthians 13:4 ...Charity [agape love] suffereth
long ...
1 Corinthians 13:4 (NIV) ...Love is patient ...
If we don't have patience, we don't have love, and if
we don't have love, we have nothing, no matter how
"spiritual" we may consider ourselves to be:
1 Corinthians 13:1 ...Though I speak with the tongues
of men and of angels, and have not charity [love], I
am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal.
2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and
understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and
though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.
3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor,
and though I give my body to be burned, and have not
charity, it profiteth me nothing.
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity
envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not
puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her
own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the
truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth
all things, endureth all things.
8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be
prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be
tongues, they shall cease; whether there be
knowledge, it shall vanish away.
9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part.
10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that
which is in part shall be done away.
11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I
understood as a child, I thought as a child: but
when I became a man, I put away childish things.
12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then
face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I
know even as also I am known.
13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these
three; but the greatest of these is charity [love].
If our possessing even the greatest spiritual gifts
means nothing if we don't have love, the first
quality of which is patience, then how much more
meaningless are physical possessions if we don't have
love? And how meaningless is it to have the gift of
children if we don't love them, if we aren't patient
with them?
By taking everything away from Job and placing him in
a time of tribulation, God was giving Job an
increased measure of the greatest possession of all:
patience, and so love, that single possession which
alone can give meaning to having children and
possessions, which alone can give meaning to life
itself.
And God showed that Job was already on a higher level
of love wherein his love for God outweighed his love
for his children and his possessions, outweighed his
love for even his own life.
We must love God like that:
Mark 8:35 ...For whosoever will save his life shall
lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my
sake and the gospel's, the same shall save it.
John 12:25 ...He that loveth his life shall lose it;
and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep
it unto life eternal.
Matthew 10:37 ... he that loveth son or daughter more
than me is not worthy of me.
Luke 14:26 ...If any man come to me, and hate not his
father, and mother, and wife, and children, and
brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he
cannot be my disciple.
27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come
after me, cannot be my disciple.
Strong words! The ultimate claim upon our lives, a
claim that only our Creator can make, a claim that He
has every right to make, as Job well knew:
Job 1:18 ...Thy sons and thy daughters were eating
and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house:
19 And, behold, there came a great wind from the
wilderness, and smote the four corners of the house,
and it fell upon the young men, and they are dead;
and I only am escaped alone to tell thee.
20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved
his head, and fell down upon the ground, and
worshipped,
21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother's womb,
and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and
the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the
LORD.
22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God
foolishly.
Job 2:10 ... shall we receive good at the hand of God,
and shall we not receive evil? ...
Job 13:15 ...Though he slay me, yet will I trust in
him ...
How many of us could say that? And how many of us
could really mean it, when the rubber hits the road?
How many of us truly love God more than our own lives,
more than our children, more than our money and our
possessions? And how will we ever know for sure that
we do unless we go through a tribulation where we
lose everything like Job did and yet remain true to
God?
2 Thessalonians 1:4 ...So that we ourselves glory in
you in the churches of God for your patience and
faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that
ye endure ...
Hebrews 10:32 ... ye endured a great fight of
afflictions;
33 Partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by
reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye
became companions of them that were so used.
34 For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took
joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in
yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an
enduring substance.
35 Cast not away therefore your confidence, which
hath great recompence of reward.
36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have
done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.
37 For yet a little while, and he that shall come
will come, and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man
draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
39 But we are not of them who draw back unto
perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of
the soul.
Revelation 2:10 ...Fear none of those things which
thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some
of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye
shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful
unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.
11 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches; He that overcometh shall not
be hurt of the second death.
Revelation 13:10 ...Here is the patience and the
faith of the saints.
Revelation 14:12 ...Here is the patience of the
saints: here are they that keep the commandments of
God, and the faith of Jesus.
13 And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me,
Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord
from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit ...
Revelation 20:4 ...I saw the souls of them that were
beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word
of God, and which had not worshipped the beast,
neither his image, neither had received his mark upon
their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived
and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
5 But the rest of the dead lived not again until the
thousand years were finished. This is the first
resurrection.
6 Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first
resurrection: on such the second death hath no power,
but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and
shall reign with him a thousand years.
Luke 20:36 ...Neither can they die any more: for
they are equal unto the angels; and are the children
of God, being the children of the resurrection.
1 Corinthians 15:54 ... when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have
put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the
saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in
victory.
55 O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is
thy victory?
56 The sting of death is sin; and the strength of
sin is the law.
57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast,
unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord,
forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain
in the Lord.
2 Corinthians 4:16 ... though our outward man perish,
yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
17 For our light affliction, which is but for a
moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and
eternal weight of glory;
18 While we look not at the things which are seen,
but at the things which are not seen: for the things
which are seen are temporal; but the things which
are not seen are eternal.
