Looking at the entirety of the book of Job in the aggregate, one can’t help but notice that though he started out as a man of faith, a man who was blameless and upright before God, by the end of his trial, the strength and magnitude of Job’s faith in God had increased exponentially. There is always room for growth when it comes to faith. We build upon it daily, and there’s never a cap or a limit wherein we can conclude that our faith is complete.
Faith is less like a house, with four walls and a roof, and
more like a tower, ever ascending toward the heavens, and the more we build
upon it, the closer we are to God. The higher the tower of our faith, the
clearer we are able to see Him, know Him, feel His presence, and trust in His
plan.
Today, you may have barely enough faith to trust God in the
small things. Tomorrow, the things you trust Him for will be greater than
today, and next month greater than tomorrow, because faith is ever-expanding,
stretching, ascending, as with each brick we lay, we come to understand that it’s
neither futile nor misplaced.
Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward
you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and
a hope.”
The more we grow in faith, the clearer His thoughts and plans
for us become. The more we grow in faith, the more certain we are that His
plans and thoughts for us are of peace and not of evil, intended to give us a
future and a hope. The more we grow in faith, the less likely we are to wonder
if God truly loves us, because we see His love shine through with every breath
we take, and every obstacle we overcome by His strength rather than our own.
Even so, oftentimes we see in a mirror, dimly, and don’t
fully grasp the magnitude and intricacy of His plan. That’s when the trust
equity that has been built up over time comes into play. If God never failed
me, left me, nor forsook me thus far, if He always answered when I cried out to
Him in my grief or desperation, if His presence has been consistent and
uninterrupted, I trust that He will remain faithful even if the current trials
of life seem greater than the previous ones.
Trust is the antidote to doubt. It is the antidote to
timidity. It is the cure for hesitation when we are called to press in, press
on, endure, and overcome. I trust God. I know He is not leading me down the
wrong path; I know the trials He allows are not purposeless; I know that He
will make a way even when there seems to be no way, because He is unchanging,
and if He did these things before, He will do them again.
God doesn’t have a credibility problem. Men have a faith
problem. Since the dawn of creation, God has never promised something He has
not delivered. He never bragged about being able to do something, only to fall
short of the mark. Even when it came to something as impossible to human reason
and man’s intellect as a child being born of a virgin, because He spoke it, it
came to pass. I know my God can do all things because He’s proven He can do all
things.
Luke 1:37, “For with God nothing will be impossible.”
This is a straightforward enough declarative. Nothing means
nothing, and the angel that came to Mary did not elaborate any further. He didn’t
say, except for this one thing, whatever that might be, but declared simply
that nothing is impossible with God.
God is not limited to man’s understanding of Him, nor is He
constrained by what men think He can do. He is God! Sovereign, supreme over all
of creation, with full authority to do as He wills as the Creator of all that
is. He does not need man’s permission nor man’s consent to fulfill His purpose
over His creation.
Why were the three young men resolute as they refused to bow?
Because they knew nothing was impossible with God. Why did Daniel stand fearless
amidst the lions? Because he knew nothing was impossible with God. Every
example in God’s word of men who exceeded their limitations, who went beyond
themselves, and who stood unperturbed in the midst of the tempest, was due to
their unflinching conviction that nothing is impossible with the God they
served.
There is a confidence that makes itself manifest when we walk
by faith and not by sight. It is a confidence that is evident in our actions,
decisions, and overall outlook. Even at his lowest, Job exhibited this
confidence I speak of, wherein he declared without equivocation that he knew
his Redeemer lived.
He had cried out, and God had remained silent. He had lost
his wealth, his children, his health, and felt the grave calling to him, yet
retained the presence of mind and faith to declare, I know that my Redeemer
lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth.
Do you know or do you hope? Do you know or do you presume? Every
morning, I get ready to go to work, and I hope my car will start, but I don’t
know that it will. Whenever it gets cold, I hope my heater can keep up, but I
don’t know with certainty if it won’t finally decide to give up the ghost. It’s
not a distinction without a difference; it’s the difference between being able
to endure the trials of life while looking onward toward the prize and giving
up the race and never receiving your crown. The race must be completed for you
to receive the prize. There are no participation trophies mentioned in the
Word.
Job knew. He knew that after all the pain, all the travail,
all the heartache and despair, he would see God for Himself, and his eyes would
behold Him and not another.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
