Change Is Near To Impossible

“But he knoweth the way that I take: [when] he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.” (Job 23:10 AV)

This should be the heartbeat of every saint!  The transformation process if often difficult.  For Job, it was near to impossible.  The LORD exacted of him a cost he thought he could never pay.  Yet the grace of God saw him through it.  On the other side, Job was changed into a person he had never been before.  This is his hope!  When life doesn’t make sense, we can have faith the LORD has allowed or caused events that we might be a different person on the other side of the trial.  We may not even be aware of what needs to be changed or what had changed until the trial come to fruition.  Job didn’t need that.  At least not in this statement.  This verse should have been the end of Job’s words.  This is the conclusion of the whole matter and the only thing that does matter!  Change!

As a pastor, I am puzzled at times with those who claim the name of Christ, yet seek no change.  They are the Peter Pans of the church.  They simply do not want to spiritually mature.  When difficult times arrive, the ride it out and then wonder what just happened.  A basic human desire is to grow and mature.  Every child wants to grow up.  They want to get older.  The same should be the natural desire of the child of God.  Growth and maturity.

One must admit, some of the greatest times of growth have also been the hardest times of life.  This is the way of the LORD!  Advice I give to young pastors who are seeking the LORD’s leading in ministry, I tell them it is like marriage.  Your job is to change them into what Christ would have them to be, but God will use them to change you.  It is just as much about the preacher’s maturity as it is the people’s. 

The hardest of all is welcoming and internalizing these events so they might change us.  Job didn’t really have a choice.  He could not run from losing all his children.  He couldn’t run from losing all his wealth.  His poor health would follow him no matter where he ran to.  There was nothing he could do about his situation.  These trials are often the best ones to go through.  Welcome them.  Endure through them.  Allow the Spirit to permanently change you by them.

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.

Just Pray

“O that one might plead for a man with God, as a man [pleadeth] for his neighbour!” (Job 16:21 AV)

Knowing when to give counsel with prayer or just prayer alone is important.  Job really didn’t need the opinions of his friends.  He really didn’t need their judgments.  What he needed was empathy and prayer.  He knew the trouble of which he was suffering was not for some horrible sin of which he was guilty.  He knew he was right with God.  His own conscience would affirm this.  His friends needed to admit they had no answers and just pray with him.

There are two kinds of people.  Those who need advice and those who do not.  The majority of people need advice but don’t want to hear it.  So, trying to offer it when not wanted is a waste of time.  Then there are those who need advice and will listen.  God has to bring them to that point.  There is the group that does not need advice because the either a) already know the situation better than anyone else, so advice comes off as condescending, or b) there isn’t any advice to be given because their situation is a step of faith and waiting on God is the only answer, or c) the situation is above anyone’s ability to understand it and all opinions are misses!

As we stated before, most people fall into the category of needed biblical instruction but turn away from it.  Instead, they desire empathy without correction.  A prayer is all the ministry they will accept.  But Job is different.  If there were any words of wisdom to be had from this bunch, he would have listened.  But they were unwilling to entertain the possibility that Job indeed might be innocent.  They were predisposed to condemn him and the cause of all his troubles.  What Job needed to most was empathy.  Because that I all there was to give.  So, next time someone is in a world of hurt, empathy should be automatic.  Then, if there is wisdom to be shared, following the lead of the Holy Spirit is a must.  Prayer will never hurt.  Sometimes, miss applied advice can be more hurtful than the situation at hand!

If You Don't Have Anything Nice To Say...

“Lo, mine eye hath seen all [this], mine ear hath heard and understood it. What ye know, [the same] do I know also: I [am] not inferior unto you…O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.” (Job 13:1-2,5 AV)

My Mom used to say, "if you don't have anything ice to say, don't say anything at all."  Perhaps a better way of putting that is, "If you don't have anything worth saying, don't say anything at all."  What Job is trying to tell his friends early on in their discourse is there is nothing which they can share that he doesn’t know already!  He is older and wiser than them all.  He knows the facts of all they are saying.  What he needed was not declarations of opinions.  What he needed was help from them to draw out what he already knew.

This is the bulk of our counseling.  It is not telling people things which they do not know.  The law is written on our hearts.  Most of what we need we already know because God put it there.  Often, what we need is counselors to draw it out of us.

What Job’s friends should have done was to ask questions.  Help Job overcome his grief and confusions to begin the process of healing.  They should have steered him towards a resolution which they do not know themselves, but rather, was within the heart of Job.  If they had nothing which could help poor Job, silence would have been the best choice.  Job rightly felt his friends were condescending.  They were talking down to him.  They were judging and belittling him.  When helping others, it is important to establish a value which they have.  Patronizing and condescension never work.  Establishing a relationship of mutual worth is the foundation of trying to help them.  If we cannot do this, then it is better we say nothing at all!

Oops! That Was Meant for Me!

“Then a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: It stood still, but I could not discern the form thereof: an image [was] before mine eyes, [there was] silence, and I heard a voice, [saying], Shall mortal man be more just than God? shall a man be more pure than his maker? Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:” (Job 4:15-18 AV)

Eliphaz speaks of a dream which he dreamt.  A dream in which the Spirit of God, or another spirit, relayed to him the LORD’s lack of confidence in people.  Even if those people were the people of God.  He said the LORD spoke to him that God is purer, especially in wisdom, then man would even be.  He use this dream as a pretext for correcting Job, yet he never considers this vision applies more to him than to Job.  Had he applied it to himself, he may not have said a word to Job.  This statement is coming off a remark of Job in which is rightly states the answer to this all is within himself, but his distress is clouding the ability to see it.  Eliphaz, as old and as wise as he is, should have assented to that point and realized God’s revelation to himself was about him!

How many times have we done that?  I remember a few times when preachers close to me preached a message and had no idea the LORD was speaking to them.  One was a class instructor in Bible college.  He was teaching missions.  All the while the LORD was speaking to him to resign his position and start a church!  The other preached on a character flaw of which he himself was the greatest example.  This gentleman never did listen!

But preachers are not the only ones.  Parents and grandparents do this all the time.  Of course, we try to cover our hypocrisy by saying, “Do as I say and not as I do.”  We do our devotions as see the faults of others, never considering the LORD might be speaking to us.  We go to church and listen to the preacher. We are having a great time so long as he is addressing the faults of others.  When he speaks of ours, we assume the LORD must mean someone else.  It is the old beam and mote issue.  May the LORD humble our hearts and give us humility to discern when He is speaking to us that we might head His word!

Putting God First Puts Family First

“And it was so, when the days of [their] feasting were gone about, that Job sent and sanctified them, and rose up early in the morning, and offered burnt offerings [according] to the number of them all: for Job said, It may be that my sons have sinned, and cursed God in their hearts. Thus did Job continually.” (Job 1:5 AV)

Devotion to family before the LORD is measured by action, not by emotion.  What we do for our children, in the area of spiritual growth, is the measure of our own righteousness.  Job, knowing that his children gathered (without inviting him and mom) may have swerved into the inappropriate.  The first thing he did was to call his children to him, sanctified them, then offered with them offerings to cover any and all sin which they may have swerved into.  One cannot help but see a church age application here.

The first thing on their return was not fellowship.  The first thing upon their return was not a family day, a picnic, or a meal together.  The first thing on the agenda for Dad to see to was the family worship together!  Dad did not sit them down and visit with them to reacquaint himself to his family.  He did not have the boys go out and check the family business; tending to the flocks or harvesting the fields.  Dad did not skip out on the daily sacrifice because his sons were in town and he rarely gets to see them.

No!  This man of God whose righteousness exceeds the righteousness of all but Christ, knew the most important thing for family was to be right with God!  There is a lesson here!  We make all sorts of excuses why family comes before the LORD.  But unless we are tending to the spiritual welfare of our families, but rather, entertaining or caring for their emotional or physical ‘needs’, then we really don’t care as much for our families as we claim!  There is no better extension of our love towards our families than to make their relationship with the LORD the number one concern.  Being in church and requiring of them the same is the greatest thing a parent can do for his children and grandchildren.  Serving the LORD is church and soul-winning is the greatest thing a parent can do for his kids.  Not a trip to the park, museum, or shopping.  Not play time, not work time, not social time!  GOD TIME!