Downfall of Job

 Job 1:19 ESV

Job1:21b ESV

If you have not experienced great and almost total loss I can tell you there is nothing else like it on earth.

My loss was of the life I’d known and the loss of stability, a new home, and a reliable vehicle. It was a shock to lose what I’d known for thirty years, but at least my children were safe.

In the book of Job we are told a story of what it’s like to lose everything. Job even lost his children.

In Job 1:19 we are told, “behold, a great wind came across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young people, and they are dead, and I alone have escaped to tell you.”

It seems strange now but I don’t remember meditating and sitting with the account of Job when I lost the ministry life I’d known. It was a shock and God did show me the way to a new life.

There is much I don’t remember about the days and months that followed. Looking back many years later I can see that God was protecting me.

God provided a way for me to start over again.

God was with me each step of the way. I remember praying and asking God to show me the way to a new life.

In Job 1:21b his response was, “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

Job’s words are important because he recognized it was God who gave him the life he had…possessions and family.

Job recognized that the life he had was only possible through God.

Ultimately, Job remembered God.

Even though his loss was complete Job remembered that it was God who provided that life. It was God’s journey for Job.

Job knew whatever happened in the future was in God’s hands.

Somehow Job knew God had provided and everything taken belonged to God.

Ultimately, Job knew his life and future were in God’s hands.

When loss is sudden and we aren’t given forewarning it’s easy to think it must all be a mistake. God could not be the creator of the loss. However when we take that stand we aren’t giving God credit for being God.

Job gave God credit for being God.

Job knew his past was from God, his present condition was not devoid of God, and his future was in God’s hands.

When we are in that moment we accept whatever God has for us (both loss and abundance) and we really begin to believe that God is good and loving. The physical losses we suffer paved the way for us to open our hands and heart to God. Even though our hands seem to be empty our hearts are full.

In that moment recognizing the true fullness of life from God is one of the great blessings God sometimes gives.

Job recognized the fullness of God.

Job accepted whatever God had for him.

Since God is good and loving even though Job could not see the future God had for him, he knew God HAD a future for him.

Job’s response, “Blessed be the name of the Lord” meant Job believed that whatever happened next was in God’s hands.

Job accepted that God was in charge. Sometimes that’s the greatest lesson we will learn.

Deborah

acrazyjourney.com