Faith goes beyond having to know “Why God?”

Readings:

Job 1

Job 2

Job 3

Job 4

Job 5

A powerful consideration for praying daily for family and friends:

Job 1:5 NLT
When these celebrations ended—sometimes after several days—Job would purify his children. He would get up early in the morning and offer a burnt offering for each of them. For Job said to himself, “Perhaps my children have sinned and have cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular practice.

Note: I need to add this to my Prayermate cards (in a personalized way).

Also, God gives and He takes away. We’re probably somewhat comfortable for thanking Him for what He has given us, but are we prepared to worship Him and not sin even when what we say “the Lord has taken it away”? What can I thank the Lord for daily for “taking away from me”?:

Job 1:20-22 NLT
Job stood up and tore his robe in grief. Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground to worship. He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!” In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.

Note: I probably need to add this to my Prayermate cards too.

The Bible teaches us that a good wife is one of the greatest blessings, but I’ve heard plenty of jokes about why Satan didn’t touch Job’s wife:

Job 2:9 NLT
His wife said to him, “Are you still trying to maintain your integrity? Curse God and die.”

I should definitely thank God for my good wife, and praise Him for the fact that she builds me up and encourages my faith and doesn’t act like Job’s wife did here. But even what Job’s wife meant for evil,  God turned it to good because Job is ankle to again say that we should be willing to accept bad things at times and not only good things from God — and we see that this was not wrong!

Job 2:10 NLT
But Job replied, “You talk like a foolish woman. Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” So in all this, Job said nothing wrong.

If you’ve ever faced real, horrible, agonizing grief, you’ll agree that learning to accept bad things and still know that God is sovereign and good is more important than any intellectual & religious argument about whether or not or “what part God can have in” causing, allowing, or choosing to not prevent bad things from happening.

It’s still hard for me to understand fully how this all works with respect to God’s sovereign power, so if anyone can explain it simply, it hurts my heart many times seeing oppression, abuse, atrocities, diseases, loss, grief,  suffering.