You Do All Things Well//

Job 1:1-12 (New International Version)

"In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright;he feared God and shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East. His sons used to take turns holding feasts in their homes, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would send and have them purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, "Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts." This was Job's regular custom.

Job's First Test

 One day the angels came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came with them. The LORD said to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it." Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil." "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger." Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD."

The awful problem of suffering appears often in the Scriptures and in our own lives. There remains a mystery, though, about suffering,

After the noisy clamor of the novice in suffering and the weighty words of the veteran in suffering, after the sarcasm and cynicism and bitterness of those in pain, after the slander of Satan against God, the voice of the Spirit sounds clear, "...Have you considered my servant Job ..?" (Job 2:3)

Perhaps a person's ability to explain suffering is the clearest indication of never having suffered. Sin, suffering and sanctification are not problems of the mind, but facts of life- mysteries that awaken all other mysteries, till the heart and life rest in God and, waiting patiently, know that "He do all things well."

Oh, the unspeakable comfort of knowing "God reigns," that God is "our Father," and that "the clouds are but the dust of His feet."

PRAYER THOUGHT:
When I do not understand why I must suffer, help me to trust in Your tender care and love.