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Have you recently had your plans changed? Did trouble
cause the schedule to be other than you had planned? Were your hopes and
goals disappointed? Take heart, Father is loving you and bringing about
His purpose. He sent the trouble on purpose, His purpose.
When Job replied to his murmuring
wife, "You are talking like a foolish woman.
Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?" the
Scripture tells us “In all this, Job did not
sin in what he said.” He responded to the loss of all his
children and all his wealth the same way: “The
LORD gave and the LORD has taken away.” The Scripture again
says, “Job did not sin by charging God with
wrongdoing.” The text clearly states that Satan brought all this
trouble to pass, however, Job goes directly to the source and says the Lord
did it, “may the name of the LORD be praised."
Job was not aware of what had
transpired in God’s presence prior to all his trouble. God brings up Job’s
name to Satan and challenges Satan to admit that Job was a righteous man.
Satan (the Accuser) attacked Job’s character and said to God, "Does
Job fear God for nothing? Have you not put a hedge around him and his
household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so
that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out
your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to
your face."
Since God does not take orders from
Satan, when Satan said for God to “stretch
out your hand and strike everything he has” God replied, "Very
well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man
himself do not lay a finger." In other words, Satan is on God’s
leash. He can do only that which God orders and no more.
When we see that all our troubles
come “from God,” even if by the “hands”
of Satan, like Job we can embrace the trouble and say, “may
the name of the LORD be praised.” We call it TROUBLE WITH
PURPOSE. In Job’s case, the end of the book tells us not only how God
doubled everything He allowed Satan to take, but Job learned some valuable
lessons. For example in the last chapter: “Then
Job replied to the LORD :
"I know that you can do all things;
no plan of yours can be thwarted.
You asked, 'Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?'
Surely I spoke of things I did not understand,
things too wonderful for me to know.
"You said, 'Listen now, and I will speak;
I will question you,
and you shall answer me.'
My ears had heard of you
but now my eyes have seen you.
Therefore I despise myself
and repent in dust and ashes." “
This discipline of Job was God’s
because “the Lord disciplines those he loves.”
Thus, what we call TROUBLE is on purpose. We are told to endure the
trouble “as discipline; God is treating you
as sons.” Jesus told us not to worry about tomorrow because “Each
day has enough trouble of its own.“ Jesus did not say to try to
avoid trouble, but He implied that the trouble itself has a purpose and has
been sent to us to embrace because it is from Father.
You will remember that it was this
SingleVISION
way of looking at trouble that Joseph expressed when he told his brothers, “you
meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about
that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.“ Just
as Job’s
SingleVISION went directly to the source and skipped focusing
on Satan, so Joseph skips focusing on his evil brothers and sees God
bringing about His purpose through trouble that “God
meant” for Joseph to go through.
So both Job and Joseph “see God”
in their trouble and they know that their loving God is in their trouble
working all things together “for the good of
those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.“
This is what we call
SingleVISION.
James even tells us to “Consider
it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter
trials (trouble) of any sort or
fall into various temptations.
Be assured and understand that the
trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and
patience. But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full
play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly
and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing.“
This is saying trouble in your life has a purpose for your good.
Paul had this
SingleVISION
when in Philippians he tells us that being in Paul’s being in prison was for
God’s good purpose: “Now I want you to know,
brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the
gospel. As a result, it has become clear throughout the whole palace guard
and to everyone else that I am in chains for Christ. Because of my chains,
most of the brothers in the Lord have been encouraged to speak the word of
God more courageously and fearlessly.“ And Paul tells us in
Romans: “Moreover [let us also be full of joy
now!] let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our
sufferings, knowing
that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving
endurance.” That is what God’s children know when they have
trouble: trouble works Father’s purpose in my life.
Wake up! When you have trouble,
understand, IT IS NOT ABOUT YOU. See the way Paul puts it to the
Corinthians: “Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of sympathy (pity and mercy) and the
God [Who is the Source] of every comfort (consolation and encouragement),
Who comforts (consoles and encourages) us in
every trouble (calamity and affliction), so that we may also be able to
comfort (console and encourage) those who are in any kind of trouble or
distress, with the comfort (consolation and encouragement) with which we
ourselves are comforted (consoled and encouraged) by God.”
When we, by faith, see that God has
a purpose for the trouble we face, we don’t grit our teeth and just get
through it as any lost person would. No! When we have grown in the Lord
enough to see Him in all things, we go through the trouble and we “rejoice
with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”
Hello! Trouble in your life is
working in you exactly what God wants: No trouble “seems
pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest
of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”
Kiss the whip. The One Who holds it is loving you and not only you, but
those for whom your experience may bless in days to come.
Look to Jesus for your example. This
SingleVISION is the way Jesus endured
the cross: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the
author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him
endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the
throne of God.” The cross was no “joy”,
but Father’s purpose was. Jesus knew that the “trouble” of the cross was
not the end. The end or goal was to God’s glory.
Let us say with Paul, “I
consider that our present sufferings (trouble)
are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
By faith we “see God” at work in all our troubles, bringing about His
purpose and our good. AMEN!
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