August

Ephesians 3:17-19  

And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.   

God is so complicated  
 
     Do you ever think about how God can be so simple in His love for us and at the same time His love isn’t so simple to understand? In fact, I find that although I feel His love at times, or read about it, or see it in others, when I try to understand it, I can’t. I realize that there is much more packed in those 4 letters than I can see, feel, or hear. His ways are not like our ways and He is so complex and so complicated in every possible way. God isn’t difficult, but He is difficult for us to understand in our small minds. When things are wonderful and prayers are answered the way I hoped, His love is easy for me to see and even feel. Everything is just rosy and I could count the ways of how His love is perfect, kind, and generous, but it’s harder to have the same reaction when prayers are deferred and I have no idea what He’s doing. It’s harder for me to express His love or even see it when all I feel is pain or confusion.  
     Job is a perfect example. God loved Job, really and truly loved him. This is how God describes Job: “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.”(Job 1:8) You have to understand this love before you can understand Job’s pain. In the midst of what happened to him, we have to always remember that it was because of how much God loved Job that tragedy struck him in the most horrific way. We saw God’s sweet mercy and love clearly when it came to Hannah’s story. His love was easy to see, easy to read, and honestly easy to feel. Yet with Job I have to really try hard to see God’s true love. To be honest, it’s hard for me to wrap my mind around it. Why does God’s love have to be so hard and complicated in some situations like Job’s? Why did God allow such tragedy to strike when He loved Job so much? I can’t completely answer a tough question like that, but I do want us to try and see that in the heart of calamity, lies His abundant love.    
     Job has everything. He’s got wealth, land, many sons and daughters, a wife, and a home. He’s respected among the city and even among his servants. God has blessed him abundantly and in the midst of all this, he loves the Lord. He really is a blameless and upright man who fears God. God described Job correctly. What Job doesn’t know is that God and Satan are about to have a conversation that is going to rock his world. Let’s listen in and see what takes place.

“The Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, fearing God and turning away from evil.” Then Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge about 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 put forth Your hand now and touch all that he has; he will surely curse You to Your face.” Then the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your power, only do not put forth your hand on him.” So Satan departed from the presence of the Lord.” (Job 1:8-12)

A few more conversations like this and Job has lost his sons and daughters, his servants, his animals, and his health. All that he has left alive is his wife. Can you imagine? Do you see God’s love in this anywhere? At this point of his story, I will be honest and say that not only do I not see His love, but I really feel angry. But forget about me, how does Job respond? “Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10) Job knows that God’s love is in the midst of this somewhere. He may not see it, but he refuses to curse God. He does choose to accept this as something from God. The rest of the chapters in Job are about his thoughts, emotions, and his struggles to make sense of this disaster. I encourage you to read it and see how God responds. His story is a good reminder of how small we are and how big God is and that God’s love runs much deeper than we can comprehend. Though Job struggled to understand what was happening, he did not forsake God. What God said about him in the beginning remained true till the end. That’s how I want my stories to end. That at the end I remain true to my God. Even if I can’t see or feel His love in my pain, I trust and believe it covers me completely. If He has the power to raise me from the dead, then surely He can raise me from every kind of pain, sorrow, and conflict.  
     Think through your own tragedies or difficult circumstances. Did you see God’s love evident? It might have been after the crisis calmed down and you could clearly see that God was working and taking care of you. Perhaps you saw it from the beginning or not till weeks later. The bottom line is that whether or not we can see it with our own eyes or feel it, we have to trust that His love is under, in, and on top of the disaster we are facing. Do you truly believe what Romans 8:28 says? “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” He works the catastrophe out for good in some miraculous way. Why? Because His love was involved from the beginning. His love allows the conflict and most definitely ends the conflict. Yes, God’s love can be complicated to comprehend, but it’s not complicated to be loved by Him. I believe I have quoted these words before, but I believe they are powerful to leave with you once again. This is a demon speaking about those who trust God (Enemy) even though it doesn’t make sense. That’s how I want to be described and how I want to live. 

“Our cause is never more in danger than  

when a human, no longer desiring,  

but still intending, to do our Enemy’s will,  

looks round upon the universe from
 which every trace of Him seems to have vanished,  

and asks why he has been forsaken, and still obeys.”

~ C.S. Lewis-Screwtape Letters ~