Job LXIII

 The entirety of the third chapter of Job is divided between laments and lamentations and questions Job continues to ask, to which he receives no answers. It’s hard to reconcile what we hear passing for Scripture nowadays, wherein men insist that God becomes more of a permanent butler and wish granter than Lord and King of your life, and what we see His servants and ones such as Job whom He considered blameless and upright had to endure in their lives.

For most people, the difference between what they hear from the pulpit as to what their expectations should be as believers and the lives of those who came before them isn’t a contradiction; it’s an oversight.

Telling people that pain and loss, grief and tears, are part of the human experience and cannot be avoided unless you’re permanently attached to a tank of nitrous oxide isn’t quite as inviting as telling them that from this day forward, they’ll be blessed coming and going, sleeping and waking, regardless of whether it’s beneficial to their spiritual man or not. The flesh has become a de facto god, and the priests thereof are quick to serve it and make it feel at ease whenever called upon to do so.

When anyone dares to bring up the point that Jesus Himself said that in this world, we would have tribulation, they’re quick to insist that He meant it exclusively for His disciples, sort of like the Holy Spirit, who He likewise said would be with us and in us until the end of time.

If love for God and the presence of God is not indwelling in the heart of man, then man will seek to serve his heart rather than God. Knowing that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, it’s likely that you may not want to go where it leads or give in to its desire because it will ultimately end in destruction.

I don’t mean to spoil it for anyone, but the Bible never says to follow your heart. I know, it’s a game changer. So many arguments within the household of faith could have been averted altogether if the parties in contention had agreed to let the Word of God have the final say.

I believe I have a decent enough poker face. By that, I mean I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve, nor do I foreshadow my emotions. There is perhaps one person in the world who knows what I’m thinking at any given moment, and that’s my wife. We’ve been together long enough that I don’t have to emote or have any outward reaction to anything in order for her to know exactly what’s going through my mind. That said, whenever I hear someone begin their argument with the ever-irrelevant “I Feel,” especially when it comes to heretofore-established biblical matters, I can’t help but roll my eyes. It’s instinctual, and I’ve been in conferences where it’s been noticed.

There is a difference between feeling your hurt, feeling your pain, feeling your loss, and allowing those feelings to dictate how you react toward God and your fellow man. God did not create man to be an unfeeling robot. He created man with the ability to connect, to love, to laugh, to cry, to mourn, to feel triumph and loss, to cheer on the accomplishments of their progeny when they progress, and their cello and violin playing no longer sounds like someone is abusing a cat, and feel disappointment when they choose to eat an entire bag of fun size Snicker’s in one sitting even though they knew better.

Job was verbalizing his feelings, his pain, and his grief, but he did not allow them to overtake his senses and use them as a justification to sin against God, whether in word or deed.

1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.”

Temptation comes in many forms. It’s not just that leftover piece of chocolate cake in the fridge that’s tempting you in the wee hours of the morning. Such temptations are easy to resist because you just close the refrigerator door and go on with your day. The more nefarious temptations are the ones you can’t walk away from, those stewing in the back of your mind, whether it’s resisting the will and purpose of God for the struggles of life or questioning His sovereignty when the unexpected and unplanned happens, and everything around you seems to fall apart.

There have been moments in life where the urge to try and solve a problem on my own rather than waiting patiently upon the Lord was near to overwhelming. It’s a battle of the mind and one that is taxing beyond belief because the flesh is essentially at war with the will of God, and one must win out.

With every act of submission, with every heart cry of “Your will be done,” it becomes easier to trust God in all things because hindsight will make it clear that had you tried to do it on your own, it would have had disastrous results. Had I tried on my own, I would have failed. Even though my plan was logical, well-reasoned, and, at the moment, seemed like a viable remedy, looking back and seeing how God went about solving it humbled me and made me trust Him all the more.

A man’s way may seem right to him, but unless it’s God’s way, no matter how well thought out his way may be, that man is courting disaster and destruction. When we are humble enough to submit to God’s authority in all things and allow Him to guide us, He will make the crooked ways straight, and the trials that once seemed insurmountable will become a reason to glorify Him.  

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.