It’s easy to forget that Job was an ordinary man made extraordinary by his devotion and faithfulness to God. Every time we encounter a testimony of faithfulness and endurance that seems near impossible to believe, we must remind ourselves that whoever they were and whatever they went through, they were ordinary men and women just like you and me, having to contend with extraordinary circumstances that could only be traversed by having full and unwavering trust in the God they served.
We try to downplay the need for enduring faith in our day and
age. Being blameless and upright, fearing God, and shunning evil is not
exciting enough because we have to compete with the world and its excesses,
whether in the form of entertainment or the rush to validate individual
feelings, however absurd those feelings might be. We fail to acknowledge that
the premise of the thesis itself is flawed; therefore, any conclusion we might
arrive at will likewise be flawed. We are not competing with the world, or
better said, the world is not competing with the household of faith. They
can’t. There’s no competition there. It’s like pitting a lion against a skunk.
The best the skunk can do is make a stink, but giving the lion a run for his
money is outside the realm of possibility. What God has on offer for His
children so far surpasses anything the world can conceive of, that it’s not
even worth mentioning.
Since the devil can’t compete on a spiritual playing field,
the only thing left in his arsenal that might make a dent with is deception. Essentially,
he has to put lipstick on a pig, hoping enough people aren’t paying attention,
and fall for his ruse. We have to make allowances to make church more palatable
to the younger generation, don’t we? We have to compromise the truth and lower
the standard of the gospel because we’ve built this giant sanctuary that’s
sitting half empty, and we have mortgage payments to cover. Look at the guys across
town. Ever since they incorporated fog machines and a mosh pit, their attendance
has gone through the roof.
Eternity is all well and good, but people are looking for
relief and the promise of an easy life here and now. We can’t keep talking
about enduring to the end or consecrating ourselves unto God so that we may
remain steadfast in the face of the storm because we’ve done enough polling to
know that it’s not what people want to hear.
People want to be told that a half-hearted commitment to God
is a cure-all for anything and everything, whether a way out of a minimum-wage
job or a remedy for that pesky acne that keeps coming back. We’ve reframed the
message of the gospel to cater to men’s flesh, men’s wants, and men’s desires,
downplaying the spiritual and eternal, the rebirth to a new life and a new
understanding of our purpose during the finite time we are here.
God is not a magic genie you can call on any time you need
something fixed or a few extra bucks in your pocket. He is God.
Another thing the modern-day church doesn’t want to hear
because it shatters the illusion of being little gods is that God is sovereign.
There can only be one sovereign. Although man is created in God’s image, man is
not entitled to His attributes. To say that man is sovereign in his own right
is to say that man is on equal footing with God Himself. The dynamic of
creation and Creator will always exist, and though God loves you more than you
can ever conceive, He will not share in His sovereignty. In simple terms, when
one is sovereign, they possess supreme authority, with the option of exercising
it at will. You don’t have that, nor do I, nor does anyone else who insists they
are a little god.
Psalm 115:3, “But our God is in heaven; He does whatever He
pleases.”
That sums it up quite nicely, no matter how many individuals
insist that godhood and its inherent sovereignty were imputed to man along with
righteousness. Sorry to break it to you, but you are not a god, little or
otherwise. As such, it is incumbent upon us to submit to the One True God and
acknowledge His sovereignty in all things.
Although he was a blameless and upright man, Job still feared
God because he understood what many today fail to: God is sovereign over all
creation! Even though the Psalms were centuries away from being written, Job
understood that God is in heaven and He does whatever He pleases, meaning there
is nothing outside the realm of possibility when it comes to what He can do.
The God we serve spoke the universe into being. He said,
"Let there be light," and there was light. He formed Adam out of the
dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. His
majesty is unfathomable to the human mind, yet every day, we attempt to whittle
Him down and shrink Him to our level of understanding.
When man tries to fit God into a box and insists there is
something He can’t do or something He should do, when God does the opposite of
their expectations because He does whatever He pleases, it is inevitable that
they will balk and bristle or, at the very least, feel slighted at having their
input ignored. This can lead to a crisis of faith or a misunderstanding of God’s
character, which is why it’s crucial to acknowledge and submit to His
sovereignty.
God is the final authority on all manners, and there is
nothing and no one that can stand against His plans and purposes. If He were a
cruel God, a mean God, a God who took pleasure in the suffering of His
creation, then the reality of His sovereignty should be a reason to fear and
dread. However, we know that He is love, the very definition thereof, and
whatever circumstance He may allow in our lives will work together for good.
Limited as we are in our understanding and having the inability to see into
tomorrow, never mind ten years down the path of future time, all we can do is
trust fully that He is working a good thing in us.
With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea, Jr.
Posted on 27 September 2024 | 10:08 am
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