Job 10-13: Hold on Loosely

Job and His Friends
Ilya Yefimovich-Repin 1869
Used with permission from 

http://freechristimages.org

Job 3:15 “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”

Several years ago, I remember being in such an agitated emotional state that I said to God, “Though You slay me, I will trust You.” As I cried out to my Abba in the midst of my pain, He was already preparing to answer my cries for emotional relief in a beautiful way.

It was just before Christmas and my Husband, Strongman, had ordered the book, “One Thing” by Chuck and Pam Pierce for a gift. The next day after crying out Job 3:15 to my God, my book arrived. Sure enough, on page 21, Pam Pierce wrote that she also cried out to God with the very same verse. That was surely enough to get my attention. Of all verses in the entire Bible, Job 3:15 is mentioned the day after I cried it out to God. I knew reading that book would give me another piece of the puzzle to the situation in which I had found myself. 

Our Father is willing to step into the midst of our difficult situations and give us peace, sometimes resolving the difficulty, sometimes not, but ultimately, God is looking at the eternal aspect of our temporal lives. He may need to kill some flesh in us for our eternal sake. The killing of flesh hurts! But the killing of flesh prepares me for heaven where flesh cannot dwell.

Situations arise that are designed for flesh killing, whether God Himself has designed the situation or satan, it doesn’t matter. What matters is what we learn from the experience and whom we run to for comfort. Battles teach us to war. I had not been a warrior before that season in my life. But now, I thank God that He allowed that difficult time, to strengthen me for even more difficult tasks which would lie ahead.

Judges 3:1 & 2

“NOW THESE are the nations which the Lord left to prove
Israel by them, that is, all in Israel who had not previously
experienced war in Canaan; It was only that the generations
of the Israelites might know and be taught war, at least those
who previously knew nothing of it.”

One thing that I am in the process of learning is to hold my life here on earth loosely. With every battle, difficulty or stress, I long even more for my true home. I am an alien here in this world (something I didn’t understand before the battles). My true home is in heaven with Jesus.