Friday, August 20, 2010

The blessing of no blessings

From Job we read: "Why do the wicked live on, reach old age, and grow mighty in power? Their children are established in their presence, and their offspring before their eye. Their houses are safe from fear, and no rod of God is upon them. ... They say to God, "leave us alone! We do not desire to know your ways. What is the Almighty that we should serve him? And what profit do we get if we pray to him?'"

Ever been that way, wondering why you've spent so much time in the Bible and in prayer only to see something terrible happen while across the street, someone who doesn't go to church, doesn't read scripture and makes fun of you when you pray has all the "luck in the world?"

Truthfully, who hasn't? Who hasn't said, or thought, why me, Lord? What did I ever do? Why won't you bless me and mine? What's the point of all these spiritual disciplines if they never get me one step closer to knowing you or hearing from you or even being blessed by you?

Those propserity preachers' churches are growning by leaps and bounds because they prey upon those who believe God will give them things for their faith. But the scriptures I read point out that great men of faith bled and died without receiving much of anything.

The 11th chapter of Hebrews points out "Others suffered mocking and flogging and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned to death, were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground."

Where's the prosperity in these champions of the faith?

The writer of Hebrews though captures what it means to have faith when he writes, "yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised since God had provided something better so that they would not, apart from us, be made perfect."

If one concentrates on the did not receive what was promised part of the sentence, one will live a joyless life and continually wonder why the person across the street is doing so well. If one concentrates on the provided something better part of the sentence one will see that our reward for faith often, in fact very often, doesn't come in this lifetime but in the one to come.

Does God answer every prayer, every Job question? Yes and no. Sometimes the answer is silence and sometimes the answer is flat out no. On this side of the River Jordan. But it's a mighty, wonderful YES on the other side.

Faith means we have the possibility of waiting it out. That when we cry out to God and get nothing but the wind in response, we still, still, STILL, remember that God is just as responsible for the wind as he is for anythign else.

God loves us, but he doesnt' always bless us with things. Job, remember, lost everything before he gained everything. If he had given up while he was still among the lost, he never would have gained anything.

He never would have said, "God understands the way to (wisdom) and he knows its place. For he looks to the end of the earth and sees everything under the heavens. When he gave to the wind its weight and apportioned out the waters by measure;"

God knows. He understands. He listens. His patience is as abundant as His power. Oh that we grow some of that fruit of the Spirit. Patience that is.

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