A Praise Like Job
-There are two stories I want to share with you! The first is something I went through just last night; and the second is a biblical story that the Lord used to correct my heart this morning!
Okay, I was hanging out in my dorm room pretty bored, so I got on Youtube! You know how that goes, you get on Youtube to look up a song and you end up watching a video on how to make homemade ice cream! Lol So anyway, I decided to look up some pretty old songs to reminisce on because that sounded like way more fun than working on my final essay. So I did & I ended up listening to song after song.. after song. And I went from reminiscing about my sisters and I to missing my ex-boyfriend! (never good). The more songs I listened to that reminded me of him, the sadder I got & the more I began to question everything about my past. "Did I give up too soon? Should I have ended it? Does he still think about me at all? Where did we go wrong?"... Is it just me or have you done that too? Okay, just making sure we're relating here! So with all of these thoughts going through my mind, I started to feel like God "took something away" from me that I cared about & "Loved"! Here I am, going on two years of being single!! Two years of not even a potential boyfriend. I started asking God "Don't you love me? Don't you want me to be happy?" Yea, I went there & He put me in my place, you better believe it!
So, every morning I spend quality time with God. First, I play some of my favorite worship songs, then I'm led to pray.. cry.. sit in His presence... whatever it is I feel led to do, then I read my daily devotional which is sent to me through Gmail from DailyBibleVerse.com! They send me a scripture every morning & I just read the entire chapter that the scripture is from; and it has helped me TREMENDOUSLY to get familiar with all of the stories in the Bible that I had never read before. (highly recommended if your walk with Christ is fairly new) Well, this morning I read Job chapter 1.
Brief Summary of Chapter:
Job was a blameless & upright man. He feared God and shunned evil! He has 7 sons, 3 daughters, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen ( pairs of cows or bulls) & 500 donkeys with many many servants! This man had it ALL!
One day angels came to present themselves to the Lord & Satan was among them! The Lord asked Satan "Have you considered my servant Job? He is a blameless man who fears God & shuns evil." Satan's response was that Job only served God because God had given him so much! So the Lord told Satan that everything that Job had was now in Satan's power, but to not lay a hand on Job! (Don't panic, God always knows what He is doing, you'll see why He gave Satan that permission).
Job lost everything. He lost his sheep, he lost his oxen, he lost his servants & camels, he even lost his CHILDREN! They died along with everyone & thing else! But that did NOT break Job down OR steal his praise & love for God! Job's response was "Naked I came from my mothers womb, & naked I will depart. The Lord give & The Lord taketh away. May the name of the Lord be praised!"
Are you as shocked and GUILTY as I was? This man lost everything he had, even the closest thing to him, his ten children. Yet Job showed Satan that he did not praise God because God had given him things, Job praised God because he LOVED & FEARED God! This story put my heart into check because it showed me my tendencies to pull away from Christ when I feel like I don't have it all or understand it all; which proves to Satan that I want to praise God to get things from Him. God's answer to my silly ("Don't you want e to be happy?") question was "Yes, I want you to be happy. But you have to be happy with just me before you're happy with someone or something else." I, just as well as you, have to praise God even when we don't have it all! Job was down to literally nothing & had a heart of praise! Now that's what you call being content with you & God!
No, I don't have a boyfriend. No, you may not be in your ideal circumstance of life right now. But you know who we do have? CHRIST! We have our Lord and savior that has brought you out of some situations.We have a God that hurts every time you're hurting. We have a God that endured crucifiction FOR YOU AND ME!! That's who we have. Being a follower of Christ doesn't mean you get everything you want. You're going to have to go without some stuff that God may not see fit for you to have, but you'll never be without Christ. You'll ALWAYS have His love, comfort, peace, protection & wisdom to glean from for understanding. Let's not turn our backs on Christ when we don't get our way & only praise him when we're happy. Let's ask God for a heart of praise even when we're down to nothing, like Job had :)
You're so loved,
Erica Xx
Okay, I was hanging out in my dorm room pretty bored, so I got on Youtube! You know how that goes, you get on Youtube to look up a song and you end up watching a video on how to make homemade ice cream! Lol So anyway, I decided to look up some pretty old songs to reminisce on because that sounded like way more fun than working on my final essay. So I did & I ended up listening to song after song.. after song. And I went from reminiscing about my sisters and I to missing my ex-boyfriend! (never good). The more songs I listened to that reminded me of him, the sadder I got & the more I began to question everything about my past. "Did I give up too soon? Should I have ended it? Does he still think about me at all? Where did we go wrong?"... Is it just me or have you done that too? Okay, just making sure we're relating here! So with all of these thoughts going through my mind, I started to feel like God "took something away" from me that I cared about & "Loved"! Here I am, going on two years of being single!! Two years of not even a potential boyfriend. I started asking God "Don't you love me? Don't you want me to be happy?" Yea, I went there & He put me in my place, you better believe it!
So, every morning I spend quality time with God. First, I play some of my favorite worship songs, then I'm led to pray.. cry.. sit in His presence... whatever it is I feel led to do, then I read my daily devotional which is sent to me through Gmail from DailyBibleVerse.com! They send me a scripture every morning & I just read the entire chapter that the scripture is from; and it has helped me TREMENDOUSLY to get familiar with all of the stories in the Bible that I had never read before. (highly recommended if your walk with Christ is fairly new) Well, this morning I read Job chapter 1.
Brief Summary of Chapter:
Job was a blameless & upright man. He feared God and shunned evil! He has 7 sons, 3 daughters, 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen ( pairs of cows or bulls) & 500 donkeys with many many servants! This man had it ALL!
One day angels came to present themselves to the Lord & Satan was among them! The Lord asked Satan "Have you considered my servant Job? He is a blameless man who fears God & shuns evil." Satan's response was that Job only served God because God had given him so much! So the Lord told Satan that everything that Job had was now in Satan's power, but to not lay a hand on Job! (Don't panic, God always knows what He is doing, you'll see why He gave Satan that permission).
Job lost everything. He lost his sheep, he lost his oxen, he lost his servants & camels, he even lost his CHILDREN! They died along with everyone & thing else! But that did NOT break Job down OR steal his praise & love for God! Job's response was "Naked I came from my mothers womb, & naked I will depart. The Lord give & The Lord taketh away. May the name of the Lord be praised!"
Are you as shocked and GUILTY as I was? This man lost everything he had, even the closest thing to him, his ten children. Yet Job showed Satan that he did not praise God because God had given him things, Job praised God because he LOVED & FEARED God! This story put my heart into check because it showed me my tendencies to pull away from Christ when I feel like I don't have it all or understand it all; which proves to Satan that I want to praise God to get things from Him. God's answer to my silly ("Don't you want e to be happy?") question was "Yes, I want you to be happy. But you have to be happy with just me before you're happy with someone or something else." I, just as well as you, have to praise God even when we don't have it all! Job was down to literally nothing & had a heart of praise! Now that's what you call being content with you & God!
No, I don't have a boyfriend. No, you may not be in your ideal circumstance of life right now. But you know who we do have? CHRIST! We have our Lord and savior that has brought you out of some situations.We have a God that hurts every time you're hurting. We have a God that endured crucifiction FOR YOU AND ME!! That's who we have. Being a follower of Christ doesn't mean you get everything you want. You're going to have to go without some stuff that God may not see fit for you to have, but you'll never be without Christ. You'll ALWAYS have His love, comfort, peace, protection & wisdom to glean from for understanding. Let's not turn our backs on Christ when we don't get our way & only praise him when we're happy. Let's ask God for a heart of praise even when we're down to nothing, like Job had :)
You're so loved,
Erica Xx
