Job CLXXVII

 Awareness of one’s own identity in Christ matters. The full assurance that we are sons and daughters of God keeps us at peace even when chaos reigns all around. It’s those who are not, or who harbor doubt as to whether they are sons and daughters of the Most High, that wither in the face of trials, that lose heart seeing the oncoming storm, and that are ill at ease when the enemy rages.

Therein lies the danger of a superficial faith absent true fellowship, intimacy, and relationship with Christ. Those who have not humbled themselves, repented, picked up their crosses, and followed after Christ are constantly wondering whether they truly are what they claim to be, whether saying a handful of words on a given night is enough to claim sonship, and whether God will answer when they call.

When things are going well, and even when, once in a while, life hands you a lemon, you manage to make lemonade, it’s easy to argue that fence-straddling is a perfectly reasonable option, in which you’re not fully committed to the light nor entirely devoted to the darkness. Never mind that the Word insists that existing between two worlds at odds with each other is impossible. Never mind that Scripture states without equivocation that we cannot serve two masters; we’ve found a workaround, a way of ensuring that the flesh gets what it wants and God gets what we can spare.

All well and good until the music stops, the other shoe drops, and we are faced with a situation that requires divine intervention. It is then that men discover the folly of their way, and that what they’ve told themselves was acceptable in the sight of God turns out not to be.

That Jesus will look upon many who paid Him lip service and conclude He never knew them is not hyperbole or a fear tactic to make us behave. It is a truth that Scripture declares as something sure to occur at some future time when we stand before the great white throne of judgment. The heart of man cannot be Switzerland. It cannot be neutral. It will always belong to one master or the other. Those who have bought into the lie that they can faithfully serve two masters simultaneously have done so because they’ve already chosen which master they will serve, and it is not the God of the Bible.

Had Job not had the relationship with God before his trial commenced, had he not known the goodness of the Lord but only pretended to, he would have given in long ago. There would be no Book of Job, and likely not even a footnote in history as to his existence. Our faith in God, our knowledge of Him, our relationship with Him, and the assurance that He is a good Father carry us through the dark times and difficult seasons of life, while others, without the benefit of knowing God, have long been swept away.

That once we come to the knowledge of truth and are born again, we will nevermore have trials, tribulations, hardships, disappointments, or struggles is a modern-day invention that is an absurd if fanciful lie. It’s not that we will cease to have valleys in life that give us hope and peace; it’s the knowledge that God will be with us every step of the way that buoys our spirits to the point that those observing our hardship question where the strength is coming from.

Job 16:15-22, “I have sewn sackcloth over my skin, and laid my head in the dust. My face is flushed from weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death; although no violence is in my hands, and my prayer is pure. O earth, do not cover my blood, and let my cry have no resting place! Surely even now my witness is in heaven, and my evidence is on high. My friends scorn me; my eyes pour out tears to God. Oh, that one might plead for a man with God, as a man pleads for his neighbor! For when a few years are finished, I shall go the way of no return.”

Just because God is silent, it doesn’t mean He isn’t there. Just because He may seem distant, it doesn’t mean He isn’t present. We try to rationalize why something is happening with our own intellect, refusing to acknowledge that our ways are not His ways and our thoughts are not His thoughts, to the point of doubting His presence in our lives when prayer after prayer goes unanswered and when nothing but our groaning breaks the silence.

Although none of us has been where Job was, we’ve likely felt like he felt at times. Although Job meant it literally, we’ve all had seasons where we metaphorically sewed sackcloth over our skin and laid our heads in the dust. Those moments and seasons where everything is dulled, and nothing holds any flavor, where all you can do is fall on your face before God and cry out to Him. I’ve had situations where my face was flushed from weeping, and my eyes poured out tears to God. If that makes me less spiritual in someone’s eyes, so be it. It shouldn’t, though, at least not if we understand that while He makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust, only those who are His sons and daughters will be welcomed into His kingdom. What is this life compared to eternity? What trials may come, we know our destination, our home, is waiting for us. 

I can neither delude myself nor lie to you and say that if you follow Jesus, every day’s a Friday, and you’ll walk around for the rest of your life with a perpetual grin and glazed-over look in your eyes. That is not what the gospel promises, it is not what God promises, and for anyone to insist it is so is to speak contrary to Scripture.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.