Experience Through Suffering
While reading Job, one cannot help but notice that there is suffering being endured with each passing verse. Everything in Job's life has been taken from him. There is much to be taken from Job's suffering, one of which being that suffering in the Christian life is a battleground. While reading in chapter 2, it is clear that suffering is a battleground. It is in suffering where your soul is being fought for. Job's wife is attempting to get him to curse God, but deep in his soul Job knows that God is good, and that we are to accept all things including the bad, and still worship and honor Him. This battle for one's soul, I have seen, is typically where one draws closer or further away from God -- and it is because of suffering. One can either delve deeper into God's Word and ground themselves for further battle, or that person can simply accept what is happening and allow for it to slowly harden his or her heart to the God of the universe. It is clear that Job's suffering is a test of his faith and commitment to God. It states in Job that it is satan causing this suffering, but with God's permission. This battle for Job's soul was created because satan did not think that he could remain worshiping God through the suffering satan would inflict upon him, but God knew that Job would.
Another lesson learned throughout Job's story is that God can do what He wants. We do not need an explanation from Him for what is being inflicted upon us; this is not to say, however, that there is not significance in what the Lord chooses to do. One of the groundings of my individual faith has come from the book and life of Job: "Though He slay me, yet I will hope in Him" (Job 13:15). This just speaks truth into every rial of life. The Lord can do whatever He wills, yet I will continue to trust His ways over any other -- including my own. Reading Job has helped produce faith and perseverance in my life unlike any other book in the Bible. Reading it isn't the most fun, for it's not the most exciting and isn't as good of an overall story as some of the others in the Bible, yet there is something about the suffering of Job that allows believers to understand that God is not a God that I create for myself. His ways are His ways, not ways that I create for Him to follow.
Another lesson learned throughout Job's story is that God can do what He wants. We do not need an explanation from Him for what is being inflicted upon us; this is not to say, however, that there is not significance in what the Lord chooses to do. One of the groundings of my individual faith has come from the book and life of Job: "Though He slay me, yet I will hope in Him" (Job 13:15). This just speaks truth into every rial of life. The Lord can do whatever He wills, yet I will continue to trust His ways over any other -- including my own. Reading Job has helped produce faith and perseverance in my life unlike any other book in the Bible. Reading it isn't the most fun, for it's not the most exciting and isn't as good of an overall story as some of the others in the Bible, yet there is something about the suffering of Job that allows believers to understand that God is not a God that I create for myself. His ways are His ways, not ways that I create for Him to follow.
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