Perceived Through Belief

This week we are going to be looking at the life of Job. If the general teachings that I grew up on are anything like your own, then the pictures that you have carried around in your mind are something like this:

The sons of God came into the throne room, they are standing before the Lord and Satan enters in with the group. Satan is asked where he came from and he says from wandering the earth. The Lord offers up Job saying there is none like him on the face of the earth who fears Him and how he stays away from evil. Satan states that Job isn't "all that". He believes that if God did not give him protection, prosperity and bless all that his hands are involved in that Job like everyone else would curse Him. The Lord simply states to Satan,"Everything he has is in your power, but you must not lay a hand on him!" Satan leaves the Lords presence at this point and tries to prove he is right and God is wrong. Which leaves us with the questions of why would God allow all this pain to come upon such a decent guy?

Job lived in Uz we know nothing about this place except that it was somewhere in the Middle East. Probably somewhere in the Syrian Desert. This desert is the same place where the Lord sent Paul for his 3 years of one on one study with God. I am sure these two men were not the only ones that had to learn desert discipline - in fact I think that many of us have been, are in and will be on our own Syrian experience with the Lord.

So let's try and glean something from Job's life. Instead of going back over what we have been told of this account within Jobs life. Let's sojourn through it with him and see what we can find out along the way. Let's look at it as if we are in the cocoon as Job enters in to heal from all the pain and look at all the scenes in their fullness. (I am posted Kaleidoscope Key on http://www.seecreativityspeaks.blogspot.com/ if you did not have a chance to read it Saturday - it is revised as well).
We will start with Job 1 - His character: man of integrity, decent or upright, blameless, feared God, and stayed away from evil. Yesterday we looked at Proverbs 3:6, 7 this is exactly what Job did. knowing this much of Job, I believe that he trusted without wavering in Proverbs 3:8 which states: "It will be healing to your body and refreshment to your bones."
As for family, he had 7 sons and 3 daughters. He had been very blessed and multiplied owning 7,000 sheep and goats, 3,000 camels, 1,000 oxen, 500 donkeys, a large number of servants. He was the most influential person in the Middle East. Now that is something isn't it?
But let's take a personal look at Job - we would think that He didn't have a worry in the world (except all the responsibility of overseeing all this blessing). His sons were might have been party animals it states that they took turns throwing parties at their homes and they would send invites to their three sisters to come eat and drink with them. Job took action, based on his faith. When the parties were over Job gather them all together to cleanse them of their sin by sacrificing burnt offerings for each of them. It reads as thought this were an every morning thing because it states he did this for them "all the time". As a parent, believing the same things Job believed I know the distress that it would cause me. Jobs thoughts are recorded so we do not have to assume. "My children may have sinned and cursed God in their hearts."
Looks like Job had some children, that in his mind were Mr Fools, heading for a collision with Mr Crisis. Today think about how we can be so blessed and yet the people in our lives are constantly draining us of our peace. We can stop and judge them for being so foolish, we can discern the situation and pray for them, we can speak the truth to them in hope of them repenting and finding wisdom, or we can harden our heart to their condition and worry about ourselves. Think about those options today, think about how your actions affect others around you, then pray for wisdom, discernment and faith that will not fail due to fear of evil.
I pray this for all of us,
Kisses,
Candace