Let Us Be Inspired By Job

November 19, 2015

Let Us Be Inspired By Job

When Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes. In fact, the Lord gave him twice as much as before!

Job 42:10

When Job lost almost everything he valued in life, three friends came to him and offered their opinions on Job’s predicament. From their perspective, Job was under the judgment of God, and therefore he must have sinned. Job knew he had not sinned, and we can well imagine how painful it must have been for Job to be so accused while in the midst of his deep grief. At the end of Job’s story, God confronts Job’s three friends and points out to them the error of their ways. God conditions His forgiveness of the three friends on their going to Job and seeking his forgiveness, and on Job’s response. Job receives his friends and prays for them.

Saint Paul makes clear in Romans 8 that nothing has the power to separate us from the love of God. Yet we all experience times when we, like Job, feel estranged from God. Most of the time, not always, but most of the time, the estrangement is on us because we are prone to wander, prone to leave the God we love. However, there are times when God is very, very still. During these times we may feel estranged, but God is surely present and helping us to be grounded in His Word and not just our feelings of closeness to God. In either case, in these times we are highly susceptible to being hurt by others. May Job be our model for life in such times.

Job’s encounter with his three friends is somewhat unique in that they came to him seeking forgiveness. However, they didn’t go to Job on their own initiative; God sent them to Job. Neither those who may hurt us, nor we, when we have hurt others will always have the spiritual sensitivity to take the first step in seeking forgiveness and reconciliation. But we do know when we have been hurt by others; therefore, let us be inspired by Job’s spiritual awareness and take the first step and pray for those who have hurt us. Let’s ask God to empower us to forgive, and let’s pray for God’s abundant blessings to flow into the lives of those who have hurt us. Let’s trust God to take our case from there.

Sē’lah

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of  First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188.