9 Then said his wife unto him,
Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. 10 But
he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh.
What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive
evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips. –Job 2:9, 10
(KJV)
Often when I am not having a good day or
I feel myself becoming discouraged, I go back and read passages in the
book of Job. I have many times compared what I might be facing
at the time with the catastrophes Job was going through, and my problems
are not worthy of comparison. Here was a man who had been faithful
to God in every aspect of his life, and yet God allowed Job to go through
unimaginable trials. He lost his possessions, most of his family
and then his health failed him as he was covered from head to foot with
painful sores. Ironically, the one survivor of this calamity,
Job’s wife, had no words of encouragement for her husband. Her
advice was that he “Curse God and die.”
My, that had to be difficult for Job to hear.
His wife had lost her faith and become extremely bitter in the process.
Job reminded her she was speaking foolishly. He also stated a
powerful faith principle; our faithfulness to God is not to be dictated
by our circumstances. Good or bad, we are called to remain faithful
to God at all times. Such is the basis of faith and commitment
to God.
This faith principle is difficult, especially
when we feel we have somehow been slighted by God. At one point
Job become so exasperated that he wondered why he, a faithful servant
of God, was suffering, while God seemed to smile on the schemes of the
wicked (“Is it good unto thee that thou shouldest oppress, that thou
shouldest despise the work of thine hands, and shine upon the counsel
of the wicked?” -Job 10:3) The problem with such thinking is it easily
leads to bitterness, and we are all susceptible to it when problems
come our way. Job was becoming bitter, and before he could continue
in faithfulness to God he had to carefully examine his own attitudes.
If we allow ourselves to become bitter we
lose our effectiveness for serving Christ and shining His light to a
lost world. Unfortunately, I have known followers of Christ who
lost their zeal for Christ and their joy for living. The cause
was surrender to bitterness. We must be careful of allowing bitterness
to creep into our lives. Let us also be about encouraging others
to remain faithful regardless of their circumstances. You may
be going through hard times and you cannot help notice there are many
ungodly people in the world who appear to be healthy and prosperous.
Do not allow this to distract you. We have no control over other
people. However, God has given us power to be personally faithful
to Him. There is one person in the world responsible for your
faith and your happiness. You.
Try taking an opposite approach to what Job’s
wife said. Praise God and live. Praise God no matter what
and live the abundant life in Christ. The Lord has promised to
be with us. Praise Him and live.
God bless you today.
