Job XVIII

 It’s not as though Job had any advanced warning. Everything seemed normal until it wasn’t. That’s how quickly everything we thought to be permanent, substantive, unshakeable, and lasting can disintegrate, turn to ash and dust, and blow in the wind. In a heartbeat, in a matter of minutes, everything Job knew to be his life became an unimaginable nightmare.

Had Job’s trust, identity, and hope been tethered to his possessions, that’s all it would have taken for Satan’s thesis to be proven right. If we equate the presence of God with anything other than the presence of God, then when that thing is snatched from us, whether a job, a house, our health, or our loved ones, then bitterness and resentment are not far off. We seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness because those are the things that matter. All the other things are added on, not because we focus on them or prioritize them but because we sought Him first and foremost. If things get taken away but we still retain God within the context of eternity, we’ve lost nothing.

We thought we had it figured out. Because God has given me this or that temporal, fleeting thing, it proves He loves me, He is with me, and He favors me. If that’s how you view your relationship with God or how you interpret His love and favor, then one catastrophe, one cataclysmic event in your life, is all it will take for you to turn your back on Him. This is why the entirety of the prosperity doctrine is so dangerous to the spiritual man. Because we equate material things with the love, presence, and favor of God, and this could not be further from the truth of what these things entail.

When material things fail to appear, we feel dejected and let down, believing that God’s hand is somehow short or His promises untrue, even though He never promised the things we were expecting that men insisted He did as evidence of His approval or favor.

There’s a reason the Bible tells us to solidify our faith and trust in God, grow our spiritual man, and understand the battlefield upon which we will be engaging in warfare, and it’s not just once but multiple times and in various ways. The primary reason is that only your faith will carry you through the dark days. It’s your complete trust in God that will keep you from retreating in fear and doubt. It’s Him being the single most important priority in your life that will keep you from turning your back on Him when the road gets hard and the storm clouds roll in.

Ephesians 6:10-13, “Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

There is no secret or magic formula for how we withstand the wiles of the devil or the evil day. There’s no course you need to buy or conference you need to go to. All you need to do is apply the Word of God to your life and do as it prescribes. Not only do we draw our strength from the Lord, we stand in Him and the power of His might. This doesn’t mean we are not affected by our experiences, that we don’t feel sorrow or loss, but that we remain steadfast in Him, knowing His might will see us through.

It’s natural to feel sorrow—we all do—but as children of God, the sorrow we feel is soothed by our hope in Him. It acts like a soothing balm and keeps us from spiraling into desperation. It’s only by being strong in the Lord and the power of His might that we can weather the storms of this life and come through them all the stronger and resolute in our conviction and knowledge that God is with us no matter the circumstance.

Job experienced ten lifetimes worth of pain and loss in quick succession, something that would have cowed any man who stood in his own strength, no matter how strong the individual may have thought himself to be.

The evil day is not a possibility or a probability but a certainty. A wise man prepares for it, putting on the whole armor of God, knowing that if God knows his name, so does the devil, and it’s only a matter of time before he asks to sift us.

Job may have been the first, but he wasn’t the last, and even Simon Peter was told by Jesus that Satan had asked for him that he might sift him as wheat. Gold is tested for purity, and so is faith. The notion that our faith will never be tested is contrary to what the Word clearly states, but the underlying implications of being sifted are something we don’t want to contend with.

Luke 22:31-32, “And the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon! Indeed, Satan has asked for you, that he may sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail; and when you have returned to Me, strengthen your brethren.”

Rather than being strong in the Lord and the power of His might, putting on the whole armor of God, and preparing for the evil day, we come up with inventive reasons why God would never allow us to be sifted, to go through the thresher, and to be tested to the utmost.

We roll out the tired tropes about beating one’s bride on her wedding night or the testing of one’s faith being akin to child abuse, ignoring the reality that our afflictions, light or otherwise, are producing in us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.