mystic wrote:Suffering is a gift that we cannot look for and we cannot cause in our life voluntarily (it is against our nature). We can only receive it when it comes and treasure it.
It is given to us to learn something, to refine ourselves. It's God's sieve separating the silver from the dross. The quickest we can see the silver and leave the dross, the quickest we will learn the lesson and be purifed in front of His eyes.
It is a blessing because it comes exclusively for our good, refinement and well-being. It is only our faulty part (the dross) that lives it emotionally bad and prevents us to see the big door that was opened in front of us. And there is always a big door.
Also, suffering makes us in an alert condition. When the good thing happens to us, we appreciate it more fully and don't just go over it, because of that alert condition. Suffering makes us far-sighted and lets us go beyond our own limitations.
Life is as a wheel. It cycles and always repeats. We go through the same trials over and over. When we learned the lesson, and we go through the same trial again, we will pass it at once. It will have no impact on us. But when we get struck in a lesson that we did not pass yet, the trial will be very challenging for us. And until we pass it, it keeps repeating in our life, and we will always hit our head against it.
Desiring to live right is a wise decision a person choose to. He wanted to live a life with integrity, uprightness, truthfulness and most of all, a life that is honourable.
The word
“godliness” is very common to all. It is all about holiness, truthfulness, divinity or sacredness. If you encounter this word “godliness”, what is in your mind? What can you think about it? Husabdn couple would say, “godliness” towards their respective wives picture it out as being loyal, faithful, gives Spiritual nurture and direction to his family, works hard to provide for the needs of the family.
Others would say, “godliness” is having a personal relationship with God; maintain integrity, and responsibility; the ability to love, cares for others, appropriate sensitive and show kindness, have compassion for people, and so on and so fort.
Also single person, show the same characteristics towards their family members, friends, and people they associate with. The Bible character that exemplified godliness, is Job. In fact, his life provided good model of how to live.
The Bible refers Job as “perfect”. In this manner, I do believe that it does not mean being sinless but having a good reputation ( in the sight of men). We can read also, the writer described Job as “upright” (Job1;1); and this referred to his relationship and reputation with God. People who cherishes God’s word and obey His precepts and commands, is what the Bible describes of an upright person. Another characteristic of Job is he feared God. As we can read, In the old testament, the concept of being wise is to fear the Lord. As we read again, in Proverbs 1:7, declares, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. King Solomon declared “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 9:10). Thus, to fear the Lord is to respect Him earnestly, completely, stand in awe in Him, and revere Him and to recognise that He is God. Indeed, Job lived blamelessly and upright because he feared the Lord.
Not only that, we can read also that Job eschewed evil, it means he shunned evil, avoided it. Because he respected God, it resulted to hate evil. As Proverbs 3:7 commands, … Fear the Lord and depart from evil. Also in Proverbs 8:13 declares… “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.” Job’s life served as a genuine, faithful, honest life toward the Lord.
As we read, Job was rich, not only he has a large family of 7 sons and 3 daughters. Not only that, he also enjoyed tremendous wealth. He had 7,000 sheep for food and use for clothing; 3000 camels, which is use for transportation; 500 yoke of oxen and 500 donkeys. He had many servants too, and he was the greatest of all the men of the east.
The Accuser (Satan) accused Job of having faulty motives. He accused that Job of living a godly life for the wrong reasons. Because he cannot argue with God on the basis of Job’s lifestyle, he accused the motive of Job of living an upright life. For him, Job was merely “godly” for the “gold” and “saint” to get “silver”. “ Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land. But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he wil curse thee to thy face”(Job 1:10,11)
This accusation that the relationship of the Almighty with man was based on a bribe. He is really expert in accusing others of having wrong motives. He try to accuse that Job’s faith is not genuine. It is a sad to know that the new testament era, false teachers taught prosperity gospel. They believe that godliness resulted in financial gain. But Paul counteract their teaching and he declared “But godliness with contentment is grate gain (I Timothy 6:6). Thus, sometimes the Accuser’s charge is true to the life of many people.
God allow the Accuser to test the faith of Job. Because in his perspective, if God took Job’s blessing away, Job would lose his integrity and curse God. “And the Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thy hand. So Satan went fort from the presence of the Lord. “ The accuser has no confidence in Job’s faith, and God had faith in Job and I do believe that He put His confidence in Job by allowing the Accuser (Satan) to test him. Many times in our lives, we said, we trusted Him and we seldom realize that God put confidence in us. This book of Job is given to us from above to instruct and encourage us.
When we ask ourselves,
“Why does God allow the righteous to suffer? We can see important truths;
1. Satan, not God, is our enemy.
2. Satan seeks to ruin and cause us hardship.
3. God, our defender and vindicator, puts His confidence in us.
4. In His sovereignty, God places limits on what Satan can do to us. All that he has, Job painfully lose them. But he refused to curse God and abandon his faith. Job 1:22, in all this Job sinned not nor charged God foolishly, thus his character passed the test. Still the accuser charged Job, that since Job had a happy life, and have not been harmed, so he still remain being true to God. The accuser mean that Job did not have genuine faith and if God were to take away his health, Job would curse God and discard his faith. Once again, God allow the accuser to test Job physically. However, He limited his extent attack “But save his life (Job2:6) And this time, the accuser (Satan) touch the health of Job. Satan afflicted Job with “sore boils from the sole of his foot unto his crown/head –Job2:7. But Job remain his integrity. While his wife advised him to curse God and die (verse 9), Job responded to his wife “what ?shall we not receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?. He believe that God had the right to send blessings or trials and that he had the responsibility to accept either one. As we read… In all this did not Job sin with his lips (10).
Therefore, we must remember that Satan, not God, seeks our ultimate ruin. He is accuser ; God is our redeemer. We are God’s children, and if we trusted in the Lord’s saving grace, He will vindicate/defend us. In John 2:1,2’ even if Satan still accuse us, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins:and not for ours only, but also for the whole world.
The Bible teaches us that there are many
reasons behind trials and affliction. The following are the reasons, to wit;
1. Sometimes God afflicts us to discipline us. (Hebrews 12:5-11)
2. Sometimes He gives us affliction as a preventative measure (2 Cor. 12:7)
3. He sends tribulations to educate us (Romans 5:1-5)
4. To examine or test us (I Peter 1:7)
5. To strengthen our testimony or demonstrate power (Acts 9:16);
6. Or to equip us for ministry in the lives of others ( 2 Cor. 1:3-7)
7. Suffering also encourages our dependence upon the Lord. (James 1:2)When we faced problems, we must know that God is great. He is not silent, He is sovereign. Yes, He is! We cannot control circumstances, but He can. When we faced with incredible adversity, I have learned not to ask “WHY”?, but “WHO”? We should ask, “Who is in charge? The answer, of course, is “God”. He is unchanging. Me and you must ask to increase our faith and trust to Him. Because when we look to Him, He will enable us to live above our circumstances.
When we trust the Lord and continue in Him, there Iare rewards for suffering. Like Job, we can read that he did received rewards.
1. He personally encountered God.
2. He got an honest look to himself. We learn that we are small, insignificant, vile and He is great
3. God vindicated Job
4. God restored Job his health. (42:10). We read that the healing was immediate…God granted Job grace as he showed grace to others.
5. God blessed Job with twice the wealth he had before (42:12). His sheep is double from 7,000 from the beginning, and in the end, 14,000. Camels increase from 3000 to 6000; 500 yoke of oxen to 1000; donkey of 500 to 1000. God has been extremely gracious!
6. God gave Job ten more children (42:13-15)
7. God gave Job an additional 140 years of healthy and prosperous life
8. Job lived to enjoy four generations of grandchildren and great-grand children.
I do believe that God allows us to go through trials so that He can
refine us and purge or clean away the dross or impurities from our lives. It is good to know that the fact that He allow these to us with purpose.
As we submit to Him, the sooner the refining process and also the trial will be over. And remember, that
if we do not submit and learn the lessons He wants us to learn, He will have to take us through similar trials until “we get it right”. He desire and wanted us to be like Him. There are times that we think trials in life come to us as accidents, incidents, mishaps or personal injuries caused by other people. Me and I must remember that He is sovereign above anyone else or any other power that tries to harm us. There are times also that something is wrong happening in our lives that we blame someone, I learned that He allowed that person into our lives or that thing because He wants to prove our faith. Thus we should thank Him for allowing trials. (James 1”1-4). For burning away the dross and making us beautiful vessels that He can use now and in Heaven (Prov.25:4; John 15:2, I Peter 1:7; 2 Timothy 2:20, I John 2:28).
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