Reality

I have got some questions for you to think about:

Have you ever said to the Lord, where are you?

Have you ever prayed and felt that your prayers got no higher than the

ceiling?

Have you ever felt like you are just wasting away, spinning your wheels but

going nowhere accomplishing nothing or very little?

Have you ever felt like you are fighting a battle with no help whatsoever? Have you ever just been totally depressed, felt totally betrayed with no one

you knew who seemed to understand you?

Did you ever feel like you would be better off dead?

Did you ever go out of your way to try to encourage and help people and

all they did in the end was ‘vomit’ on you, so to speak, with all their negative comments throwing water on your joy and faith?

Do you think a man of God could feel this way?  If your answer is no then

you haven’t been reading your Bible.

Think of King David when he said this in Psalms 41:9, “Even my own familiar friend in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his heel against me.”  This is also considered a prophecy of Jesus and Judas whom Jesus knew very well traveling with him for three years as one of His disciples then betraying Him.

This is my next question:  Do you think a believer that is living a righteous life could feel this way?  I already answered that question, with what happened to Jesus, but I want to use a one more example.

This one is Job, it says this about him in Job 1:1, “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job; and that man was blameless, upright, fearing God and turning away from evil.”  This is a story that is very hard to understand.  If this happened to someone today most people would say that the person had to have unconfessed sin in their lives, but Job didn’t sin.  Even after all that happened to him and the horrible loss that he experienced he still didn’t sin.  In fact it says in Job 1:21, “He said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I shall return there.  The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.  Blessed be the name of the LORD.’”In verse 22 it says, “In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.”

Then in his second test Job said this when his wife tried to get him to curse God and die in 2:10, “But he said to her, ‘You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?’ In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”  Here was a man that loved God and was very faithful to show it.  If you read through the rest of the book of Job you will read that he experienced most, if not all, the things I typed questions about.  If God allowed Job to go through these things, why should we be surprised if we experience some or all of the same things.

God was the same God in the New Testament as He was in the Old Testament and we as believers still can’t understand some of the things we go through.  There are many things we will never be able to explain.  But in all reality bad things happen to good people!  This reminds me of a book that Dr. Dobson wrote called, “When God Doesn’t Make Sense.”  God always makes sense but we can’t understand at times what God is up to or what or why He allows things to happen the way they happen.  So if you are going through some things that you don’t understand, I hope this ‘Tidbit’ will encourage you.  Remember these things will pass ~ hang on.

In Job’s case he ended up blessed with twice as much as he had before plus he became even wiser.  In this world sin and evil exist and even God’s people will suffer at times, it is reality, but don’t despair to the point of giving up, try to do as Job did, Praise the Lord and wait for His deliverance, He is faithful.  God bless you and yours, have a great day.