Walking Alone Has Costs and Rewards

“My breath is strange to my wife, though I intreated for the children’s [sake] of mine own body.” (Job 19:17 AV)

One of the hardest causalities of walking with God is the effect that choice has on those closest to us.  Mrs. Job paid a heavy price for her husband’s godliness.  She lost all of her children and her husband’s wealth in a single day.  It appears as though the loss of her children was the hardest of all the trials.  And understandably so.  I don’t know what I would do if I lost but one child or grandchild, let alone all nine.  It didn’t matter to Mrs. Job that her husband did all that he could do to save them.  Even to the point of physically sacrificing himself.  Nor would it.  Who couldn’t empathize with Mrs. Job and understand her bitterness towards her husband.  I certainly wouldn’t judge her.

When we decide to walk with God at any cost it not only affects us, it affects all those whose lives we touch.  Many reject the call into the ministry because of the cost it might exact on a spouse or their children.  Many reject a life of holiness and separation because a spouse, parents, children, or grandchildren would use this life choice as an excuse to grow distance.  Many people skip out on God because family plays the emotional card, manipulating loyalties so that God is not first.  There is always a cost.  But there is also a reward.

What Mrs. Job doesn’t realize is when the end of the trial comes, she will be more blessed than she was before.  That is the comfort for those who are willing to pay that cost.  Mrs. Job will have ten more children and her husband will be twice as wealthy as he was before.  What those closest to the one paying the deepest cost do not realize is they will suffer but also benefit.  When God calls, there is always a cost.  But there is also a reward.