08 Apr Walking with God through Suffering

I hope you enjoyed hearing from Dr. Stephen Mansfield last weekend. His message was so encouraging (and funny!). If you missed it, you should definitely take a listen here on his thoughts as they pertain to our current social climate, and God’s sovereign involvement in history.

This week we will continue our look into the book of Job, another of the wisdom literature books of the Bible. I don’t know about you, but for many years, and especially when I became a Christian and began to read through the Bible, Job was a really tough book for me to grasp—both in terms of what in the world is actually happening in it, and in terms of what it even meant!

I was either bored by the middle sections, or put off by the final part, or just so lost I moved on to something else (maybe… like you’ve done with this email!)

If that’s you, let me just appeal to you here—if you’ll do some work with Job, it can be unbelievably rewarding to your mind and heart, and it can be a particular help in our modern culture, which has a hard time with suffering in general, and an even harder time with a God who allows suffering.

If, as many scholars believe, Job is the oldest book in the Bible, than that ought to really speak to you—consider that the very first book the Holy Spirit inspired deals with the first questions many people ask—why is suffering in this world? Where is God? What does it all mean?

Let me encourage you, as we go through this incredible work of literature over the next month or so, to ask the Holy Spirit to help you process His Word—it’s all profitable, as the New Testament tells us. Go ahead and pick it up again—not at arm’s length, but with your full focus, and dig down—it may take you a few times through it to really “get it”, and that’s ok.

Studying it and reading it and praying through it over these last months has made me love Jesus more and, I feel, made me a “thicker” Christian—it has put some muscle onto my belief structure and shown me an even bigger God than I’ve ever seen before—and I believe it can do the same with you. Far from depressing, I believe it’s actually one of the most riveting and inspirational books in the whole Bible.

Do you need a bigger God in your life?

Do you need help in the midst of challenging circumstances?

Do you want to know how the Bible speaks to the biggest questions out there?

Do you need to grow in your compassion towards others?

Do you want to love Jesus more?

Than you need the book of Job.

Let’s grow wise and strong together.

Morgan

P.S. We’ve got some great new worship this week, but it leads off the service, so if you’re late, you may miss it (Hint, hint—please be on time!) 🙂