Encouragement 4 The Day-"Would you still love Me?"

I’ve always had a problem with persevering in prayer before God because If felt, that if I asked Him once for something- why should I have to ask Him again? That repeated beseeching in my mind amounted to begging and I don’t particularly care to beg (it’s a pride thing). Besides, if God loved us more than a parent loves a child, why He would require that we supplicate and when Job cried out to Him, and did not curse or desert Him, why did He allow Job to continue suffering?

(I feel the need to place a disclaimer here: these are my thoughts. They are not doctrine, I am not a minister and even if I was-I would encourage you to seek answers from God for yourself.)

So does God intend for us to beg before He answers our prayers? I realized that maybe I was looking at it from a distorted point of view due to my pride. Then the thought occurred to me:

“Could it be that God doesn’t necessarily want us to beg but is testing us to see, if when He does not answer right away or says “No”, would we still love Him?”

It was then I began to realize how vulnerable God is when it comes to our love. Yes, indeed I said it…that an all powerful God is vulnerable. He will not force us to love Him so He is at our mercy when it comes to receiving love from us. Is it then hard to imagine that He would want to test the depth of that love? But you say: “Shouldn’t He already know how deeply we love Him-after all in addition to being all powerful He is all knowing.” True, but have you ever been in a relationship where you believed that the other person “had your back”, your declared that they “had your back” but what happened when it was proven that they were there for you no matter what. There is an even stronger bond that developed …the relationship grew out of adversity.

Indeed, it’s easy to love someone when they provide us with exactly what we want, when we want it. The true test of love comes when conditions aren’t favorable and aren’t conducive to love. God doesn’t want ordinary love…He aches for the type of love that cries out as Job did: Though He slays me, yet will I trust Him!

Encouragement 4 The Day-"Tenacity"

Tenacity


You’ve suffered loss,

You’ve endured pain,

Failure has knocked on your door,

You’ve felt the shame.

“Don’t Quit”

Just let it go they’ve said,

Others will succeed,

Your eyes are bigger than your head,

Your wants more than your needs.

“Don’t Quit.”

Life has slapped you down,

Sometimes it’s been your fault too,

Hard to keep your feet on the ground,

Not knowing if you’d pull through.

“Don’t Quit”

Endure until the end,

If you cannot stand then sit,

You may be your only friend,

Whatever the cost, so be it.

“Don’t You Quit”

             

                                           J.Y.M

Encouragement 4 The Day-"Just Minding My Own Business!"

Sometimes I think- if I could just keep my nose to the ground, be a good person, do the right thing, treat others the way I want to be treated-everything will work out fine. Right! “Consider my servant Job…” those fateful words put the bulls eye squarely on Job’s back. There he was minding his own business, serving God, making sacrifices for his children and oblivious to the fact that literal hell that was about to break loose in his world.

Why did God bring attention to Job?

Was it not enough that he was being a faithful witness for Him? Why center Satan’s attention upon Job? On a side note, I found it interesting that when God mentioned Job’s name, Satan knew EXACTLY who He was talking about. Satan replied that it was only because God had a hedge of protection around Job. Why would Satan say that? Had he tried to destroy Job in the past and his efforts were thwarted by the hedge of protection?

So again…why the attention? God knew what Job was capable of. I would like to hypothesize that God created Job for such a moment as this and at every phase of his life he was being prepped to be an example for you and I. Consider this, in the midst of his pain Job had no clue that the end of his life would be even better than his beginning. What if he had given up? I shudder to think that such a powerful testimony may never have been told.

Are you in the midst of something so painful that you don’t want to live? Job also wanted to die. You see no way out and there is no one who can comfort or help? Job’s own wife told him to curse God and die! Remember you are only seeing part of the picture. You have no idea what the future holds and wouldn’t it suck to miss out on your blessing just because you gave up?

I don’t always understand the curve balls that life throws sometimes and in the midst of pain I sometimes find it hard to believe in the love of God…then I remember Job. Not only did God carry him through his pain but made it worth his while in the end. I’d like to think that if you asked Job: “Was it worth it?” he would say “Yes.” Certainly he probably would not choose to go through such a painful experience again but he was tried like gold in the fire and established an example for generations to come.

What a privilege to be granted an opportunity to make God proud.

Encouragement 4 The Day-"Light Chasing Darkness"

Light Chasing Darkness

Do you see where the sun goes when it sets?

And as darkness chases it beneath the horizon

Do you question its return?

Life is like that…

Darkness chasing light, light chasing darkness

Each one never final.

Though you cannot see the sun

Still you trust that it is there.

And if you can do that…

Believe.

That even through this darkness in your life,

Your sun waits

Just below the horizon.

                         
                                                           J.Y.M