Making Choices Under Pressure: Part 4 — A ‘Time With God’ Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning. As we go through this week, we’re taking time each day at this time of day to just open the Bible and say, “God, what do you have to say to us about our lives?”

What a great thing that is to put in as a practise in your life, to take personal time, you and your Bible. With God each day.

The Bible is God’s self-revelation. He uses it to speak into our lives. If you really want to know what God says about life, what God reveals about Himself, if you want to know and understand the one that you love, you need to take time every day and just read the Bible with an open heart to God, saying, “Speak to me”.

And then you need to speak back to him, make it a real conversation. Respond to what he’s saying to you. Talk to him about the issues of your day. Invite him to be involved in your life, not just blessing what you’re doing, but asking him, “God, what are you doing in my life and how do I need to bring my life in line with your plan and purposes?” There’s nothing better than a life lived in relationship with God.

We’re looking this week at the theme of making choices under pressure and looking at the life of Job in the Bible and what incredible pressure Job faced. You remember that God said to Satan, “Have you noticed Job, how he honours me, how he loves me, how he’s living this blameless life”.

And Satan said, “Well, of course he does. You’re making life easy for him, so naturally he’s going to want to live for you, but he doesn’t really love you. He just loves your blessings. And if you take those away, he’ll turn around and curse you”.

And God said, “OK. Try it then. You take away all the things in his life, but just don’t touch him”, and all these calamities happen that just destroy Job’s business. And then to cap it all off, all his children are killed in an accident in their house. The house collapsed on them.

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But in spite of this, Job still loved God and trusted God. His wife said to him, Curse God and die.

And Job said, “Why would I only trust him when things are good? That’s not faith. I trust him”.

And God came back to Satan and said, “See, Job still loves me”, and Satan said, “Well, of course he does. You haven’t touched him himself”.

And God said, “OK, you can attack his health as well. But he’s still going to trust me. You can’t kill him, though”.

And so Satan begins bringing these awful boils all over Job’s body from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. Job’s sitting there scraping his skin with these boils. His friends are coming and saying, “all this is happening because you must have sinned against God somehow”.

And isn’t that what we often think? If you’re walking with God, if you’re a person of faith, God’s going to make your life beautiful and wonderful. Your business will be great. Everything will be good. Well, that’s what his friends were telling him. Something’s got to be wrong for this to be happening. And Job said, “I know nothing’s wrong”. And he struggled. It wasn’t all easy. He questioned God, Why would you be letting this happen? But in the end, God comes to Job and reveals Himself to Job as he is. And as a result of that, Job comes back to God in Job 42:2.

Job answered the Lord and said, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

You know, Job’s choice at the end just seems like madness. No one would blame Job for cursing God. His wife prompted him to. His friends said something’s wrong.

But if Job had gone that way, that action would not have been fruitful. Instead, Job acknowledged, God, you are sovereign. I cannot see what you’re doing. But I know I can trust you.

And you know, as Bruce Wilkinson has said, dependence upon God makes heroes of ordinary people like you and me if you will trust God and His purposes even when you cannot imagine what He might be doing through the personal pain you’re experiencing.

You will find God’s goodness in the end.

I’m John North.

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