Job 1 – 9

It rolls off our tongues so easily … Thank you, Lord, for all of our many blessings. To some degree or another we’ve all hit hard times, but more likely than not you were left with something. What if it ALL went away? I mean all of it. Your family and your stuff. What then would be left to be thankful for?

It think Satan had a pretty good point.

Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

Job 1:9-11

I wonder how many of us would have failed the little experiment? Job hung in there. Satan would not let up.

Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life. But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse you to your face.”

Job 2:4-5

We have a saying when things start to go badly. “Well, at least I’ve got my health.”. Now even that is taken away from Job. This book is the struggle of an upright man to overcome intensely hard times. His wife and his friends are trying to help him through it, but they make it worse. His wife seems to be on Satan’s side when she says, “Curse God and die”.

Job chooses to hold on to his integrity as he struggles to understand.

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.

Job 1:20-22

The next time you count your blessing and give thanks to God for them, consider Job. He was everything we should aspire to be. He was blameless and upright. He feared the LORD and shunned evil. Was he this kind of man because he was blessed, or was he blessed because he was this kind of man? We need to ask, “Am I grateful because God gives, or am I grateful because God is?” The source of our gratitude is God and God alone. Although the realization took some time for him to come to grips with, Job got it.

When it all went away, Job still had only thing he truly needed.

Consider His nature.  Consider His ways.  Strive to love Him more!