The Patience of Job

Sadly, I heard a woman once say that "she didn't have the patience of Job", but it was said in a way to laugh off or to excuse her losing her temper because a certain situation wasn't working out the way she wanted.  But it's in our hard times, through our failures that God wants us to draw closer to Him, to exercise control over our emotions, to reach out to Him more. That's really what the prayer, God allow me to decrease in me and to increase in you (John 3:30) means.  We need to be so filled with God that whatever comes against us, has no effect on us because we have the confidence and trust in God that He is with us, He has already work it out for us and it will workout for our benefit in the long run.

What can we learn from Job's story?  What I've learned is that no matter how righteously we live, struggle is God's will.  So when the hard times do come, we need to be prayed up enough to lean on our faith to get us through it.  We see that Job was a wealthy man, so the favor of God was on his life. He had God's hedge of protection around him. In fact the Book of Job says he was blameless and upright, he feared the Lord and shunned evil.  This was a man that when he thought his children sinned, he offered burnt offerings to purify them.  

Then here comes Satan wanting the prove that we're weak and once things start going wrong we will abandon God.  The Book of Job is a great example of how being justified and how remaining steadfast in our love for and faith in God is the right way to be and live. Job, even when he was under attack, not just by Satan but by his neighbors and even his wife, he showed unmovable faith, explainable restraint and resilience in the midst of the storm. For his unwavering faith and trust in God, he was restored and rewarded.  Job's story shows us the benefits of never giving up on ourselves or giving up on God, even when things look bad.

I like God's faith and confidence in offering Job to Satan to be tested.  I even see how, Satan must go to God in order to test us.  This affirms that God is in control regardless of what situation comes our way, or by what way we come under attack. God is the key to truly living a victorious life and we have to condition ourselves, our heart and our mind to patiently seek and wait on Him.  The best way to do that is to remind ourselves of who God is, what He's done for us in the past and what His plan for our life is.