By Abhilash Christopher | Bangalore, India | May 18, 2023 | Share A Thought
And he said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return there. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.” Job 1: 21.
These were the words of Job when he lost basically everything he had as specified in Job Chapter 1. The book of Job is supposedly the first ever book of the Bible to be written. The theme of this book is to bring out the meaning of suffering and God’s relationship to one who suffers unjustly.
There is a common misconception that people believe even today from Biblical times, that suffering is not for a righteous man. This often led people to draw conclusions that a man suffers because he is unrighteous. The disciples had the same question in John 9: 1-5 saying "As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” "Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. As long as it is day, we must do the work of Him who sent Me. Night is coming, when no one can work. While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
But Jesus clarifies and so does the author of the book of Job. Job is portrayed as a blameless and an upright man, one who feared God and shunned evil showing that in the life of such a righteous man suffering can take place.
Today, I want to emphasise that we can both refer to ourselves as God's people and as His offspring. However, that does not imply that there would be no hardship in our daily lives. Even though hardship and difficult times can occur in our lives, we should place our trust in the Lord, who has the power to intervene in our trials and deliver us. We see God blessing Job and returning everything to him at the end. God even intervened in the life of the blind man as well, the man received his sight.
The Christian life is not a guarantee against hardship or difficult times. However, it is our responsibility to turn to the Lord, who will ultimately deliver us. Say "Blessed be the name of the Lord" even through trying circumstances. Then watch God come through for you like no other.
God bless you.
Yes, the sickness or trials are not a punishment for sins, but to reveal God's miraculous healing in your body, So it strengthen you more spiritually in faith, then you can grow stronger with the Lord, we experienced that in our lives.