03 Aug Series Nine; If God loves me why does He seem so far away in critical times?
Hello Relevance Family,
How is August treating you so far?
We celebrated our 8th Relevance service on the first weekend of the 8th month.
The question we discussed is an important but difficult one: “If God loves me why does He seem so far away in critical times?”
Bad things happen to all of us at some point in our lives. Sometimes we expect that as Christians we get an inter-galactic space-suit that keeps us shielded away from tragedy. This, unfortunately, is not true. Even as Christians we are not exempted from tragedy because we live in a fallen world. The difference lies in how we respond to challenging circumstances. When you walk through it with God, the challenge becomes a unique opportunity to grow and to see greater dimensions of God’s power at work in your life.
We read through the story of Job (Old Testament). Job is a wealthy and happy man who has it all. The enemy (satan) tells God that Job only worships God because God has given Him everything. Satan says to God “Stretch out your hand and strike everything he [Job] has, and he will surely curse you [God] to your face.” (Job 1: 11 NIV)
And God permits this. That sounds like a mean God! But in truth, God will sometimes allow the enemy to do things because God has a greater plan, as we explore below. So Job loses his wealth, his children, his possessions and eventually his health. And in all this, Job does not curse God. He laments, he questions and he tries to make sense of what is happening. But he doesn’t curse God.
There is so much meaty revelation in that story! But we focused on three points:
God used the challenging circumstances to shatter Job’s religious mindset. Job used to offer sacrifices religiously and routinely on behalf of his children. He was so conscious of their sin that he would offer sacrifices to pre-empt any sinning!
But God is a God of relationship not routine. He wanted that shattered in Job’s life because our righteous deeds can never, ever cover our sins – they may seem righteous to us but to a holy, perfect God they are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). That is not to say don’t do the right thing – but remember that your right standing with God is because of the relationship with Jesus on whose righteousness we stand. Not our own righteousness.
God used the challenges to reveal the hearts of Job as well as his friends. Job’s heart revealed a lot of self-righteousness. He couldn’t understand why he was going through all of this when he was so “good”. It made him harden his heart to God and Hebrews 3:7-8 pleads with us not to let our hearts become hard against God. We should be careful to hear His voice so He can guide us in these difficult periods of life.
In addition, Job’s friends first comfort him but then blame him for everything that was happening. They fuel his self-righteousness as they cause him to look inwards rather than upwards to God. Be careful who you allow to walk with you during crisis seasons. Do they “have your back” or do they stab you in the back with religious covered condemnation?
Finally, God used the challenges to reveal another face of His nature and establish Job’s knowledge of Him. Job during his lamentations asks to speak face to face with God and guess what, God shows up. And God says hey Job – just let me know where you were when I set the foundations of this earth? It is a fascinating conversation (that Hollywood should really think about dramatizing!) where God basically describes why He is God and why Job… is not. And sometimes we need that reality check.
Just as Job could not understand the scope of what was going on, we never really know the full story of our crisis. We only feel the pain of the now and cant see the point of the pain. The story of Job ends with Job having a profound encounter of God and sees Him with new eyes of faith:
“I’m convinced: You can do anything and everything. Nothing and no one can upset your plans. You asked, ‘Who is this muddying the water, ignorantly confusing the issue, second-guessing purposes?’ I admit it. I was the one. I babbled on about things far beyond me, made small talk about wonders way over my head. You told me, ‘Listen, and let me do the talking. Let me ask the questions. You give the answers.’ I admit I once lived by rumours of you; now I have it all firsthand – from my own eyes and ears!” (Chapter 42 MSG)
God may seem far in times of trouble but He is not. He is using the trouble to make you holy and whole. Critical times pull us into a faithfulness encounter with God so that the next time we see a storm on the horizon we can say with full confidence “I know, that I know that I know that my God will pull me through.”
And He will give you double for your trouble, just as He restored double of everything Job lost. Now, that’s a promise you can stand on.
See you this weekend for Another Amazing Sunday!#DoubleForYourTrouble. #Relevance #AnotherAmazingSunday
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