Post #78(a) - Can God Trust You?

I have told you many times, and I try to impress upon you, the truth that we will endure trials in this life. We cannot escape them.

There is not a person on this earth who has not endured a trial at some point in life. Trials are always around the corner. We are either about to go through a trial, just coming out of one, or are in a trial right now. It's the reality of life.

An unfortunate reality.

Trials are difficult and hard to navigate. Hard to endure.

But, we CAN endure them!

Romans 5:3-4 tells us to "rejoice...when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation."

Consider Job.

Job was the most righteous man in the land... and the richest. God pointed Job out to Satan, saying that he was "the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.”

Satan protested saying that Job had reason to fear God. God kept him protected and prospered him in everything he did. And Satan challenged God, telling Him to "reach out and take away everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face!”

God gave the devil permission to test Job. And Satan killed all of his children. All his farmhands and servants died. And all of his animals were either stolen or killed. The bible says that "in all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God."

Job continued to be tested by Satan, who took away his health, giving him terrible boils all over his body. But, though Job did not understand his trial and even asked why it had to happen to him, he never let go of his faith in God.

In fact, when Job's wife told him to just curse God and die, Job asked her, "should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?”

That's our biggest problem... expecting only good things from God, and viciously blaming Him when something bad happens. Why do we do this? Why do we expect only good in a broken world?

Job was wise in understanding that both good and bad things happen and that they all come from God. If we accept them, endure them, and maintain our trust in God, He will strengthen and bless us.

In the end, because Job was faithful to the Lord, and trusted God through his trials, God restored Job's riches and blessed him with twice as much as what he had before! Job lived a long, full life and died surrounded by four generations of his children and grandchildren.

Job's immortal words "though he slay me, yet will I trust in him," should be in the hearts and minds of all of us. We should rejoice in our trials! And know that God trusts us to endure them - to trust Him through them.

He has chosen us to endure so that He can strengthen, teach, build, and elevate us. He trusts us in trouble.

And we should trust Him to bring us through!