The Devotional - 26

The Devotional

Comment:

As I perceive life, there are many events in our personal lives that could be told, yet not all of these are allowed the freedom to speak. Therefore the LORD God saw the need to record the events of Job’s life in order for you and me to see that personal suffering is as old as time, yet suffering is as current as this very moment it time that ticks off each second as we read or write. So in this thought we do not have to record our personal suffering, we can read this masterpiece of literature and readily identify those areas of suffering we experience. This then is personally comforting to know that the source suffering is not solved by cursing God. Nor is suffering avoided by rejecting the supernatural war that seeks to destroy the Image of God in His created human beings. Genesis 1:27-31.

Challenge:

It can be a very disturbing thought to consider that we personally have an enemy that seeks to do one thing and who is constantly on the attack. One who does not rest when we rest, who does not take a vacation or day trip. The apostle Peter states clearly that the devil walks about as a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Be that person a child of God or someone who is related by physical birth; all suffer, but who has not yet been born into the family of God by faith in Jesus, 1 Peter 5:6-11.

Also the thought crosses my mind that if this is all that we had to look forward too, than why not just throw in the towel and give up! Why not just belly up and become a meal for the devil? I mean after all, are we not considered by the world around us as sheep for the slaughter, Romans 8:36! Oh but look, look at an all too familiar verse or two (often misquoted) in this same chapter of Romans, verses 28-30.

Suffering and sanctification go hand in hand, just as justification and glorification. Humanly we seek to enter glory by avoiding the process of sanctification, but if we look into the Living Word of God we will quickly learn the joy of suffering. Yes I said JOY and I am qualified to say so, we have our events in life and we all have a circle of friends, brothers and sisters in Christ who can verify. So take heart; one day soon we may even see our names recorded in the “Hall of Faith”; Hebrews 11.

Remember the importance that God places on suffering that even with those of a blemished character like Samson of an immoral character and Rahab who made a living by being a harlot. The names of these righteous saints are recorded as faithful to God. All of these people in Hebrews 11 were STILL faithful to God on the day of their death. Why? Because they were admittedly strangers and aliens in the land of the dead, sojourning by faith in God to the Land of the Living.

There is such great joy in the soul of men and women like that man Job. We see in him that the outward man is decaying moment by moment, but the inward man of Job is being renewed such as the apostle Paul reveals to us in 2 Corinthians 4, verses 16-18. Therefore do not lose heart, suffering is not pleasant but afterward suffering produces an eternal glory that far outweighs these momentary troubles. So fix your eyes on Jesus, who is with the physical eye – unseen. Yet when you are willing to fix your eyes on the Living Word you will see Him, clearly – Hebrews 12:1-3.