{"id":25365,"date":"2019-03-24T03:30:17","date_gmt":"2019-03-24T10:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/?p=25365"},"modified":"2019-03-21T12:17:28","modified_gmt":"2019-03-21T19:17:28","slug":"march-24-2019","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2019\/03\/24\/march-24-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"March 24, 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201c\u2019Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.\u2019<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.\u201d <\/em>Job 1:21-22<\/p>\n

When the Blameless Suffer<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Have you ever had a \u201cstraw\u201d in life that seemed as if it would \u201cbreak your back\u201d? Have you ever said to God, \u201cEnough is enough!\u201d? In the book of Job we see the story of a man who was righteous but still suffers. Job is a wealthy, well-respected man who loves God. God, Himself, calls Job blameless and upright. This didn’t mean that he never sinned. It meant that when he did sin, he knew to repent and seek God’s forgiveness. He was devoted to God.<\/p>\n

We get to see a bit of the backstory as the book opens. Satan tells God that the only reason Job loves God is that God has blessed him. God allows Satan to attack all that Job has. In a moment, Job\u2019s wealth and his children are taken from him. Amazingly, Job, in his mourning, acknowledges,\u201c\u2019Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.\u2019<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong\u201d\u00a0<\/em>(Job 1:21-22). Job acknowledges that it is God who gives us all and He has the right to take it away. He is God and He is sovereign over all.<\/p>\n

Satan, defeated in his first attempt to get Job to curse God, then tells God that the only reason Job hasn\u2019t forsaken his faith is because Satan wasn\u2019t allowed to touch his body. God allows Satan to afflict Job\u2019s body but requires that he spares his life. Job is struck with painful sores over his whole body. His wife struggles with these repeated blows and encourages Job to \u201ccurse God and die.\u201d<\/p>\n

And yet Job still recognizes God\u2019s sovereignty in Job 2:10b: “Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?’<\/em>\u00a0<\/em>In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Again, Job knows in his heart of hearts that God is over all and turning from God is no solution at all.<\/p>\n

Satan’s desire was to get Job to curse God and turn from Him. But God knew that the very evil that Satan was proposing would be the very thing that would bring an even deeper, unshakable faith in Job’s heart. Not only that, Job’s family, friends and community saw the example played out in Job’s life. And thousands of years later we are still learning from his example and his experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cLord, help us to recognize all of our blessings. Let us remember to acknowledge that You are over all and all that we have comes from You. Let us remember to worship You, and not the gifts that You have given us. May we hold loosely the things of this world and have a mindset to remember that even when You give and take away, You still love us.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>

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