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.