Dec 6thDevotion Job 1:8-12 No Doubts, No Worries

Job 1:8-12 – “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.”  “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”  12 The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.” 

“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.”  I tried, I really did.  When my elder son was born I tried not show him off.  It was fruitless.  I continuously showed pictures of him and talked about him.  I loved him so much I couldn’t not talk about him.  I was in love and I still am.  Then, perhaps I might do better with my second son, perhaps I had learned. No, I was not able to keep quiet about him either. I also loved him so much I couldn’t not talk about him.  Now I have a granddaughter that I will gladly show you pictures of.  Some people may not appreciate a parent who always wants to show new pictures and talk about a child’s new abilities.  Grandparents get leeway.  Thank God for that, because I want to show you pictures of my granddaughter.  We love her so much!  Family and Friends, me showing off my granddaughter is not saying that she is better than anyone else’s baby.  Okay, I tell her she’s the prettiest with great sincerity.  But loving and appreciating her is not to the exclusion of loving and appreciating other babies, and children.  No, actually, as my heart swells for her my love for other children grow.  I truly love the babies of Family and Friends.   I want to see pictures and hear about how they are doing.  I guarantee you, the more I love you, the more I love your babies!

God loves Job.  He opens his wallet and out from his wallet falls a long length of sleeved pictures of Job.  I can just hear God going through the chronology of Job’s life as He shows pictures.  I imagine God saying “Oh, here is Job praying to give me and telling me that he loves me.  And here he is praying to ask me to bless his children.  And here he is praying…”  I wonder if the devil is thinking “There was a time when he bragged of me like that.”

The devil can’t take God bragging about Job any longer and so he seeks to defame Job and deflate God.  Talk about doing something in vain!

“Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. 10 “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has?”  The devil claims that the only reason Job loves God so much is because God has protected him and blessed him.  Well, duh, yes…and also no.  When our babies are born they love us in reaction to our love for them.  Even grandma and grandpa who don’t get to see the baby everyday aren’t loved as much as mommy and daddy.  Grandma and grandpa also love the baby with all that they are, but the overwhelming love that the baby knows every day and every night comes from the parents.  The baby reciprocates because reciprocating true love should be a trait we are born with.  When we first come to know Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we understand that He has loved us even before we were created.  We learn that before the foundations of the earth He loved us.  We learn that for those who respond favorably to His love, nothing at any time can separate the child who loves God from the God (Romans 8:38-39).  Nothing, not ever (Jeremiah 31:3, Isaiah 54:8).

When we were children we learned to love the ones who gave us everything.  As we age, we begin to love our parents for who they are.  As we have grown up we have begun to see the beauty and wonder of our parents, even if our parents are no longer the one who feeds and shelters us.

Children of God grow to love God because they know God personally and because they know that God is always good and He always loves them.  Children of God know they can always trust God just as children know that they can always depend on the love of their parents.  The difference is that earthly parents have flaws that we overlook as we love them.  God is perfect, and so much easier to love!

We begin to love God because of His love and protection, as Job did.  But our love of God continues to grow so that we love God solely because of who He is.  Should we lose all our possessions, and all that we consider blessings, we will love God just because of who God is.  Beyond anything, we know that God is always good and that He always loves us.  Beyond hurt or confusion we may experience, beyond and much bigger, is the sure knowledge of the goodness and love of God to His children.  Babies become children who learn to trust that their parents do things, like leave them in the morning to come home in the evening.  The morning departure, though the child does not understand when a baby, is part of the parents love for the child.  The child grows to trust and understand that though the child does not understand all the “whys” of a parent’s actions, they know their parent’s intentions for them is always good.  How much more so does the child of God know this of Him?  God is all-powerful and knows everything and so He is the ultimate lover of us and the ultimate provider and protector to us.

Family, we must grow to know God for more than someone who blesses us.  We must increasingly grow in our knowledge of who God is, through and through.  To be convinced of His goodness and love.  As we grow in that, so we will trust Him even when we don’t understand, or when we hurt, or when we are afraid and confused.  We will not be foolish and become angry with God because we know, beyond anything else that we know, that God is good and that He loves us.  We can say, yes, I lost my job.  Yes, if we focus on finances it can look scary.  But we can also say that in all this, my faith in God will not waiver because I know Him personally and am absolutely convinced, beyond anything else that I know, that He is good and loves me and I can utterly trust Him.  Surely I can trust Him more than my ability to understand anything else.  I know God whom God is more than anything else that mankind can consider real.  God becomes more and more real than anything else whatsoever and whoever.  Job knew God.  He understood that he did not need to understand everything, or anything, because He knew the goodness and love of God.  Job trusted God.  So God proved a colossal point with Job.  That once someone knows Him, once someone walks in His love, they cannot be shaken because God will always be good to them, and love them.  Those who are His beloved either know that, or are learning that.  God knew Job would cling to God through all that Job would go through.  And He did.  Once again the devil was wrong and God was right.  Of course God is right!.  He always is!  God knew Job would stand all tests and Job did.

I am satisfied to know that God is good all the time and that He loves me.  I learn that fact more and more every day.  Knowing that, why would I focus on what I don’t know (the future) instead of God who I do know?  In the end, He will bring me to my eternal home.  Till then “But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)  Amen and always love and praise God!  Praise God!

Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.  Praise the Lord!

Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. 

Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, And to walk humbly with Your God.