“Oh that I were as in months gone by, as in the days when God watched over me…” Job 29:2
Reading through Job it struck me how like Job we are, when everything is going good, we say that God is with us! But when a tragedy strikes, or when we are just down in the dumps, we think God has left us. It’s all about how we feel. Don’t we sometimes believe that the Father must have forgotten the homeless, the orphan, the abused? Job had a long list of all of God’s blessings, and when all that disappeared, he, his wife and his friends decided that God must have left him…and it was Job’s fault! He must have done something wrong. He needed to repent. Well sometimes that is what we need to do, keeping a very short list of offenses. But when we’ve done that and then things get worse, then what?
We get so wrapped up in appearances and pay more attention to what the newest societal more is…just like in Jesus’ day, that we forget that God is the one we need to please. It is for His glory and pleasure that we are here.
In James 2:2-4 he admonishes us not to pay special attention the one wearing fine clothes and then treat the poor among us like a footstool, so i guess it would seem that mankind has been doing this throughout all history. Thinking that if we or others are right with the Lord, everything will be rosy. But what if it’s not, does that mean we are out of God’s favor? The Lord says in 1 Sam 16:7 “Do not look at his appearance…” Fortunately for us God looks at our hearts. It is a lie straight from the pit that tells us that when things go wrong, God must be mad at us, or He punishing us, or has withdrawn His hand of kindness from us.
Hasn’t God promised to be “with us always, even to the end of the age.” Matt 28:20. So when we’re experiencing hard times , we need to remind ourselves that He hasn’t left us, He is right there helping us, suffering with us, giving us a shoulder to lean on, someone to confide in. Be convinced of what is not seen, keep your faith…counting on the things hoped for.
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