By Rev. J. Loren Russell, B.S., MDiv.
“Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?”
Job 2:10 (NKJV)
One of the most difficult things to accept in life are the adversities that arise out of nowhere. Sometimes, when everything begins lining up and you are about to walk into your preferred future, all hell breaks loose. No one better exemplifies these seemingly random occurrences than the biblical character known as Job.
Job was a man who had both extreme highs and lows in his life. The Bible describes Job as someone who feared God and was a virtuous and honorable man who shunned evil. He had seven sons and three daughters, as well as great wealth that included seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred pair of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and many servants. The Bible says he was the richest man on the four corners of the earth (Job 1:3). God was pleased with Job and blessed him with the best life had to offer.
Job’s uprightness was being rewarded. There are certainly blessings that come as a result of faithful living. But on the other hand, adversity comes upon all of us regardless of our blessings. Job’s life shows us that even though he took good care of his family and treated his servants with respect and was blessed by God, there came a time in his life that all those blessings were drastically reversed. Everything changed suddenly and without warning. He lost all his wealth; all of his children were killed in a series of horrific incidents, and his health failed to the point he had painful boils all over his body. All of Job’s tribulations were the direct result of Satan’s effort to get him to curse God. But to his credit, Job never spoke against the Lord. He grieved deeply, asked a lot of questions, but never spoke against his God even after his wife urged him to “curse God and die” (v. 10).
The story of Job teaches us how to handle hardships. We can fall apart and become overwhelmed, or we can draw closer to God. Job teaches us how to draw closer. You see, in the grand theme of life, it does not matter how good you are or how much favor you have with God, “He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matt. 5:45). Job teaches us that both good and bad days are a part of the human experience; that neither lasts forever, and most important of all, holding on to your faith always leads to a brighter tomorrow. If we can take life as it comes and hold on to our faith, our end may be as Job’s was; “Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning” (42:12).
Be Blessed!
Rev. J. Loren Russell is President/CEO of The JLR Company for Church Financial Strategy & Consulting; an associate minister at both Goodwill and The Greater Universal Baptist Churches in the Bronx; creator/host of “Matters of Faith – The Radio Show” on Soul 1 Radio, Monday’s 8:00 – 10:00 PM (626-226-1448) and author of Matters of Faith: The Book, an eBook available at Smashwords.com.
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