.jpg)
In this final post, I’d like to offer four thoughts on applying the story of Job to our lives.
First, focus on what you affirm to be true about God. Those who know me are aware that I have a deep distaste for cliché Christianity and “pat answers.” I think those things should be categorically rejected. Neither can we praise mystery without restraint. As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, Job struggled deeply, but his struggle was the struggle of a believer who clung tightly to his convictions about what he knew to be true of God.
Second, it is possible to serve God with a pure heart in the midst of suffering. It’s important to remember that suffering does not give you a hall pass on faith and the practice(s) of faith. You can and should live your faith to the best of your ability in spite of your circumstances.
Third, be aware that there are always bigger purposes at work in your life, whether you know it or not. Job endured his entire battery of suffering not knowing about God’s conversation with the accuser at the throne. We must realize that when suffering strikes home God is not being capricious or arbitrary. He’s not playing cosmic games with his creatures to alleviate his own boredom. At the same time, what you experience is not always about you. There are larger forces and purposes at work even though we may not see them as such.
Finally, any suffering helps us to identify more closely with Christ. If you lay the life of Job atop the life of Jesus you’ll quickly identify several interesting parallels. Both suffered greatly, both suffered innocently, and both understood the fickle nature of friends and followers. Ultimately, both Job and Jesus found help on this earth in the end. For Job, it was restoration, and for Jesus, it was resurrection. Never forget that suffering is the primary tool that God invests in your life to make you more like Jesus. In Paul’s quest for knowledge of Christ, he wrote, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing his sufferings” (Philippians 3:10, NIV). The former does not come without the latter. That was true of Paul, and its true of us as well.
