Making Choices Under Pressure: Part 3 — A ‘Time With God’ Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning. How’s your week going? I hope that you are experiencing the presence of God in your week. Do you know that this is what life is about? It’s not just about surviving until you die. What kind of meaning is there in that? No meaning at all.

If your life is just this series of days you’re trying to make it through, you need to get above the level of your circumstances.

God made you.

To live in relationship with Him, and He has designed you uniquely because he wants to use you in a unique way in life. And the most important factor in you coming to that place in your life is you developing your relationship with God.

If you don’t know God, you need to recognise that there’s a problem between you and God, and that is the moral guilt of your life.

But that Jesus Christ died on the cross so that you could be forgiven. He took God’s penalty for all of our moral guilt and failings.

So that our judgement is already finished, it’s been paid in full by Him, and that allows God.

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To forgive us and welcome us into a living relationship with Him, and that is when life changes.

If you are already a Christian and in relationship with God, then you have got to maintain and develop and grow your personal relationship with the Lord, and you do that mainly by opening up your Bible each day and spending time with God, listening to Him, responding to Him.

We’re talking this week about a major issue of life, and that is making choices under pressure, and we’re looking at the life of Job in the Bible who underwent such terrible things, and we’ve already seen this week, that God allowed Satan to attack Job’s life and destroy all that Job had built up in life.

Satan said to God, “Job only loves you because of all that you do for him, not for yourself. If you take away all those blessings, he’ll curse you instead”. And God allowed Satan to take away all of Job’s business successes in life.

And then even to take the lives of Job’s children, and still Job honoured God and trusted God.

And we see the story continuing today in chapter two of Job in the Bible. It says again

There was a day when the sons of God, that’s the angels, came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them to present himself before the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” And Satan answered the Lord and said, “from roaming about on the earth and walking around on it”.

And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? Have you noticed that even though you did all these things, Job still loves me and worships me?”

“For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil, and he still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me against him to ruin him without cause.”

And Satan answered the Lord and said, “Skin for skin, yes, all that a man has, he will give for his life. However, put forth your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh. He will curse you to your face”.

“If you actually bring physical pain and suffering to Job himself, that’s when he’ll lose his faith in you.”

So the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, he’s in your power. You can’t take his life, though”. And Satan went out from the presence of the Lord and smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his feet to the crown of his head. And Job took a piece of pottery to scrape himself while he was sitting.

Among the ashes, well, Job didn’t know what was going on between God and Satan. He didn’t realise he was part of a major demonstration by God to Satan.

He couldn’t see what God was about in his life. All he could see was the suffering he was facing.

He had to just trust.

What God was doing, trust in God’s goodness. It’s so important that you develop your relationship with God when things are good because you do not have time when things get bad to suddenly develop a deep relationship with God that’s going to carry you through.

As someone said, don’t trust to hold God’s hand. Let Him hold yours. Let Him do the holding.

And you the trusting.

I’m John North.

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