Never Alone!
“God and I are not equals; I can’t bring a case against him. We’ll never enter a courtroom as peers. How I wish we had an arbitrator to step in and let me get on with life – (Job 9:32, 33 MSG)
One day as they were worshiping God-they were also fasting as they waited for guidance-the Holy Spirit spoke: “Take Barnabas and Saul and commission them for the work I have called them to do.” So they commissioned them. In that circle of intensity and obedience, of fasting and praying, they laid hands on their heads and sent them off. (Acts 13:2, 3 MSG)
There’s not a person in all of history who hasn’t cried out for the same thing Job is calling out for- someone to argue on their behalf, someone to defend them, someone to stand with them, someone to understand them, someone to direct them out of their confusion, desperation, and pain… Enter Jesus. It just hit me afresh this morning as I read the contrast between Job and the Apostles of the early church. I have the advantage that Job did not have in that I know how his story ends and how God restores him. Most of us don’t have that advantage either. We find ourselves in the middle of a perplexing struggle, a series of bad turns, a pile of you-know-what up to our elbows and we can’t for-the-life-of-us figure out where God is in the midst of all of this. Job is right in that we will never be Gods equal, we will never be able to comprehend the beginning from the end or the reasons behind all of our woes. We do however have something incredible that Job was crying out for. We have an advocate. We have an arbitrator. We have one has closed the gap between our sin and Gods perfection. He has not only died for us but has entered in us through His Spirit and now directs us when we wait upon him. We also have something else Job did not have… Spirit-filled friends. He was surrounded by those who kicked him while he was down and hit him over the head with their theology and pious perfection. With friends like those who needs enemies? Look at how the early church is described in this Acts passage: “a circle of intensity and obedience, of fasting and praying” and a total willingness to minister to each other and be ministered to as they all sought Gods direction together. How often have we isolated ourselves and worked through our issues alone rather then submitting to the safety and power of those God has put around us?
Help me to remember that when I am going through trials, whether they be of Job proportions or something smaller I am not going through them alone. Thank You Jesus for dying for me and for filling me with Your Spirit! Thank You for surrounding me with those who are following after You in the same way and help me seek out the direction for my life! No matter how lonely I may feel at times I am never alone!
