How to be like Job

Job 1:20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe(AS) and shaved his head.(AT) Then he fell to the ground in worship(AU) 21 and said:

 

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,

and naked I will depart.[c](AV)

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away;(AW)

may the name of the Lord be praised.”(AX)

 

I wish I could be like Job. I’ve gone through a lot in my years, but nothing like him. He had just had various messengers come to him and tell him that all of his livestock was dead, all of his workers, and all 10 of his children had died at once. All within an hour. So what does he do? Job 1:20 tells us that he fell to the ground and worshipped God. That is truly an amazing act of faithfulness!

 

How many times have we gone through just a fraction of what Job did, and yet all we did was complain or feel sorry for ourselves? I know I’ve done both. We need to become more like Jobe and find our ability to worship and love God in ANY circumstances.

 

So how do we become like Job? We take each set of circumstances that bring us a rough patch in life, and praise God that it’s not worse. Every time we do this, it becomes easier to do because we grow stronger. We become worship athletes if you will, and our ability to run the race that we call life much stronger in our faith, and much happier.

Is what you give God your best, or what’s left over?

What do you give God?

Genesis 4:1 Adam made love to his wife Eve, and she became pregnant and gave birth to Cain. She said, “With the help of the Lord I have brought forth a man.” 2 Later she gave birth to his brother Abel. Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. 4 And Abel also brought an offering—fat portions  from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast.

Would you get jealous of someone else if they brought a better gift to God than yours? If you would, there’s a way to prevent that, bring the best you have to God.

God doesn’t necessarily judge us on what we bring in terms of money, He just wants the best of what we’re able to give. An example of this is found in Mark 12:43,44

43 Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. 44 They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

It’s not how much we give in Dollars, it’s how much we give from our hearts. So what have you given your best of today? Your time? Your devotion? Your attention? All of these things are worth more than gold to God, and you can afford to give them.

Beginning today, wake up in the morning, pray that God shows you what He wants from you, and give it your best. Make it an offering of sacrifice, but make sure it’s the best of what you have. Doing this will bring more blessings than you have ever seen.

Be who God wants you to be, not what others tell you to be.

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

After physicist Richard Feynman won a Nobel prize for his work, he visited his old high school. While there, he decided to look up his records. He was surprised to find that his grades were not as good as he had remembered them. And he got a kick out of the fact that his IQ was 124, not much above average. Dr. Feynman saw that winning the Nobel prize was one thing, but to win it with an IQ of only 124 was really something. Most of us would agree because we all assume that the winners of Nobel prizes have exceptionally high IQs. Feynman confided that he always assumed that he had.

If Feynman had known he was really just a bit above average in the IQ department, we wonder if he would have had the audacity to launch the unique and creative research experiments that would eventually win him the greatest recognition the scientific community can give.

Perhaps not. Maybe the knowledge that he was a cut above average, but not in the genius category, would have influenced what he tried to achieve. After all, from childhood most of us have been led to believe that ordinary people don’t accomplish extraordinary feats.

Most of us fall short of our potential because of little things we know or assume about ourselves. And the most self-defeating assumption of all is that we are just like everyone else.

My point is this…Jesus is Lord of our lives, and He has made us unique and able to do anything within His will if we apply ourselves and honestly believe. He has made us to be different from everyone else and it’s up to us to take that uniqueness and break free of the limits that we put on ourselves. Don’t buy into what others think and say, KNOW what the Bible says and become the person of God that you were called to be. Break free of the limits you and others put on yourself and become the strength that God made you to be.

Moses: Humble or insecure?

English: Moses Pleading with Israel, as in Deuteronomy 6:1-15, illustration from a Bible card published 1907 by the Providence Lithograph Company (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Moses had an amazing early childhood. Born in secret, lovingly abandoned, miraculously rescued, unexpectedly raised,. Moses appears in the Bible as a person with an unusually varied past. We don’t really know a lot about Moses from a child to adulthood, but the man who eventually served as God‘s chosen leader of the chosen people was more prepared to lead than he realized.

Moses’ life covered an amazing 120 years. the first 40 were dedicated to academics and leadership training-Egyptian style. Moses’ second 40 years were spent in the desert, where he practiced leading sheep through the wilderness. Doing this gave him the knowledge to lead people through the same terrain later on. The last 40 years were spent in the stressful role of champion and leader of a nation on the move.

Each phase in the life of Moses started with a crisis. by the time he was 40, his instincts to protect his people were well intentioned, but poorly timed (Ex 2:11-15). He killed an Egyptian Guard and had to run into the desert for his life. there he stayed until God called him. That call (Ex 3:1-4:17) shows us a lot about Moses’ character. He questioned, avoided, and resisted God’s direction. He had lived with the failure and shame of his actions in Egypt for almost 40 years. He had grown used to what seemed like an insignificant role. But God had plans for Moses’ combination of ability and insecurity, a combination that made Moses a humble man.

God used Moses’ experience to hone his character. Moses’ training improved his gifts , his failures deepened his dependance on God, and god made the loving effort to convince Moses of his plans.

God can use our insecurities and uncertainties as effective tools in our lives. they can make us useful in God’s service. God can make strength out of our weaknesses. We might allow them to come between God and us, but god transforms them into part of the living bridge that connects us with the One who loves us most of all.

Looking for love in all the wrong places…

 

Auction-4 (Photo credit: Tulane Public Relations)

How many of us have looked for what we thought were true riches only to find out later that our Father was prepared to give us His entire estate if we had only sought after His Son alone?

 

1 John 4:7-8 Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

An upstate NY man was rich in almost every way. His estate was worth millions. He owned houses, land, antiques and cattle. But though on the outside he had it all, he was very unhappy on the inside. His wife was growing old, and the couple was childless. He had always wanted a little boy to carry on the family legacy.

 

Miraculously, his wife became pregnant in her later years, and she gave birth to a little boy. The boy was severely handicapped, but the man loved him with his whole heart. When the boy was five, his mom died. The dad drew closer to his special son. At age 13, the boys’s birth defects cost him his life and the father died soon after from a broken heart.

 

The estate was auctioned before hundreds of bidders. The first item offered was a painting of the the boy. No one bid. They waited like vultures for the riches. Finally, the poor housemaid, who helped raise the boy, offered $5 for the picture and easily took the bid. To every-one’s shock, the auctioneer ripped a hand written will from the back of the picture. This is what it said: “To the person who thinks enough of my son to buy this painting, to this person I give my entire estate.”

 

The auction was over. The greedy crowd walked away in shock and dismay.

 

 

Love them…anyways

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.