Job 1:9-10 (The Message)
Satan retorted, "So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does - he can't lose!
Satan attacked Job's motives, saying that Job was blameless and had integrity only because he had no reason to turn against God. Satan wanted to prove that Job worshiped God not out of love but because God had given him so much. Satan accurately analyzed why many people trust God. They are fair-weather believers, following God only when everything is going well or for what they can get. Adversity destroys this kind of superficial faith. But adversity strengthens real faith by causing believers to dig their roots deeper into God in order to withstand storms. How deep does your faith go? Put the roots of your faith down deep into God so that you can withstand any storm you may face.
Hi Jack, this is a wonderful work that you are allowing God to do through you. Thank you for being obedient to His calling on your life and then sharing it with us. I have a tendency to split hairs when it comes to Scriptural teachings which is why I refrain from commenting on many blogs and posts on FB. I definitely don't want to discourage anyone from speaking their mind and heart especially about their relationship with God. That is one of the things that I find so amazing about Christ / Holy Spirit / Father is that They / He meets us wherever we are, rather than expecting us to meet Him where They are. This I believe is why there are so many different opinions on God's Word among us who love and believe. Now with all that said I wish to comment on this post. I agree with what you have stated here and am not wanting to take away from it, but I would humbly and hopefully like to add to it a bit if I may. First of all as I am sure you know anytime satan speaks he is lying, as Scripture teaches he is the father of all lies:
ReplyDelete"44. You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:44 (NASB).
He is also very crafty in that he phrases his speech in a way that it could easily be taken as truth, such as when he challenged God about Job's motives in Job 1:9. No one worships nor obeys God from the goodness of their own heart; Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT)tells us that:
"The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?"
So it indeed wasn't the goodness of Job's own heart that motivated him to honor and obey God but rather his motivation came from God's own goodness as Scripture tells us in Romans 2:4 (NLT):
"Don't you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can't you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin?"
Also there is another aspect of God's kindness / goodness as spoken of in the same verse taken from The Message: "God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change." The radical life change was evident in the fact that Job didn't "curse God and die" as his wife suggested, when his whole life and world got turned upside down. The "fair-weather believers" you referred to, (and I intend no condemnation of anyone) seems to me never actually trusted God. What need is there to trust when all is well? It is the same with hope, Romans 8:24 (NIV) tells us: "For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has?"
Indeed adversity does strengthen real faith / real belief because when the chips are down, when our world is tossed to and fro, when we truly give our life and situation over to God's hand, then we can marvel at God's goodness toward us and grow in ways that no other situation can manifest that radical life change we so desperately need.
Again I want to thank you for being faithful to this blog, I feel that you are doing the will of the Father here and please don't take my post as criticism, I do wholly realize that I split hairs and go on and on when it probably isn't necessary. May God bless you far greater than you know how to handle.