God puts his toughest soldiers in the hardest spiritual battles. In Job chapter 1 Satan told the Lord he had been roaming the earth, obviously searching for someone to torment. God volunteered Job for the test. God knew Job would come out of his trial stronger and better.
God knows our strengths too. He only allows us to go through only what we can endure.
Hate it or love it, sometimes the Lord volunteers you to endure pain. But why? Because He hates you? No. At times He wants to put you on display.
Look at Job. Because of Job’s strength, we are encouraged by his story thousands of years later. God is using you to bring glory to Jesus. Christ thinks so much of you that He is putting you on display. God knows you can make it if you just trust Him. Do you?
God also makes weaker soldiers strong through the hardest spiritual battles. Satan essentially told God, “Job only loves you because of what he has. If you take it all away, Job will give in to me.” We see now that Job was strong because of what Job went through.
If Job never had a trial we would open the Bible and read that Job was a rich man with a large family that loved God. There is no testimony there.
Pain is a testimony in the making. Disease is a testimony in the making. Heartbreak is God setting His stage to show out in your life. Real love and faith in God must be tested; otherwise it’s all just empty words. The enemy has told God if he just takes away something from you or gives you an affliction, then you will curse God. PROVE THE ENEMY WRONG.
Do you trust God more than anything? A trial will make us do some crazy things. We get stressed out and worried, which clouds our judgment and thinking. We wind up listening to anything and anyone. We just want answers so bad. ”Why God? Why! Why! Why!” We get confused because we have taken our focus away from Jesus.
Job’s friends were convinced he was guilty of something. His own wife told him to just curse God and die. Everything looked bleak. Yet Job remained resilient. Why? Because he trusted the Lord. Do you trust the Lord? In the midst of your trial; you must focus on what you know to be true about God above all else. God loves you. If you are saved, then you are God’s dear child. Trust that He is working it out for your good.
We want the blessings of Job without the trial. That’s not how God operates. You must be tested. All the great men and women of the Bible were tried. God used pain to transform them into His warriors. God wants to transform you too!
The Rev. HC Armstrong: HCAnarrowWAY.com.
