Job was longing for the good-old days, for the days when he felt God had been watching over him. However, Job’s assessment of his present situation was not accurate. God had allowed Satan to take his best shot at Job. And because his life became difficult and painful, Job felt that the intimacy he had once had with God was suddenly missing. His former days had been better than his present ones; nevertheless, God was still watching over him and holding Satan back from killing him. It didn’t feel like that to Job, and he couldn’t look at his circumstances and see that fact; but his feelings and limited sight didn’t make it any less true. Looking from the outside, we know that what seemed like a loss of intimacy to Job was actually God proving to Satan that Job would remain a righteous man, even if he lost his wealth, family, and health. Over the course of Job’s suffering, he was learning firsthand what Solomon would write many years later: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, \/ And lean not on your own understanding” (Prov. 3:5).<\/p>\n
Many believers seem to struggle with these kinds of thoughts: “Oh, for the good-old days, when the living was easy.” No matter how like a bed of roses our lives may be, there will always be thorns; because life is filled with things that go wrong: people get hurt, illnesses strike, hearts get broken. There is a danger of missing the good things of the present moment because we are dwelling too much on our own romanticized memories of the past. Interestingly, the good old days, if we really examine them critically, are not nearly as good as we first remember them to be. We can learn from Job that what we feel and see is rarely the whole story. So when we find that we are unable to change our circumstances, we must pray, accept, trust God, and choose a good attitude; remembering to be thankful for the blessings that can still be found even in the midst of a storm. An army chaplain spoke to a wounded soldier who was in a VA hospital after returning from Afghanistan, “You have lost an arm in a good cause.” “No,” said the soldier with a smile. “I didn’t lose it\u2014I gave it.” Many things can be taken from us except our ability to trust the Lord and choose a thankful attitude.<\/p>\n
“LORD, we choose to give away our lives to You this day.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n =============================================================<\/p>\n\n\n\n Job 29 KJV<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1<\/sup>\u00a0Moreover Job continued his parable, and said,\u00a0\u00a02<\/sup>\u00a0Oh that I were as\u00a0in\u00a0<\/em>months past, as\u00a0in\u00a0<\/em>the days\u00a0when\u00a0<\/em>God preserved me;\u00a03<\/sup>\u00a0When his candle shined upon my head,\u00a0and when\u00a0<\/em>by his light I walked\u00a0through\u00a0<\/em>darkness;\u00a0\u00a04<\/sup>\u00a0As I was in the days of my youth, when the secret of God\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>upon my tabernacle;\u00a05<\/sup>\u00a0When the Almighty\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>yet with me,\u00a0when\u00a0<\/em>my children\u00a0were\u00a0<\/em>about me;\u00a06<\/sup>\u00a0When I washed my steps with butter, and the rock poured me out rivers of oil;\u00a07<\/sup>\u00a0When I went out to the gate through the city,\u00a0when\u00a0<\/em>I prepared my seat in the street!\u00a08<\/sup>\u00a0The young men saw me, and hid themselves: and the aged arose,\u00a0and\u00a0<\/em>stood up.\u00a09<\/sup>\u00a0The princes refrained talking, and laid\u00a0their\u00a0<\/em>hand on their mouth.\u00a010<\/sup>\u00a0The nobles held their peace, and their tongue cleaved to the roof of their mouth.\u00a0\u00a011<\/sup>\u00a0When the ear heard\u00a0me\u00a0<\/em>, then it blessed me; and when the eye saw\u00a0me\u00a0<\/em>, it gave witness to me:\u00a012<\/sup> Because I delivered the poor that cried, and the fatherless, and\u00a0him that had\u00a0<\/em>none to help him.\u00a013<\/sup>\u00a0The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me: and I caused the widow\u2019s heart to sing for joy.\u00a014<\/sup>\u00a0I put on righteousness, and it clothed me: my judgment\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>as a robe and a diadem.\u00a015<\/sup>\u00a0I was eyes to the blind, and feet\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>I to the lame.\u00a016<\/sup>\u00a0I\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>a father to the poor: and the cause\u00a0which\u00a0<\/em>I knew not I searched out.\u00a017<\/sup>\u00a0And I brake the jaws of the wicked, and plucked the spoil out of his teeth.\u00a0\u00a018<\/sup>\u00a0Then I said, I shall die in my nest, and I shall multiply\u00a0my\u00a0<\/em>days as the sand.\u00a019<\/sup>\u00a0My root\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>spread out by the waters, and the dew lay all night upon my branch.\u00a0\u00a020<\/sup>My glory\u00a0was\u00a0<\/em>fresh in me, and my bow was renewed in my hand.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a021<\/sup>\u00a0Unto me\u00a0men\u00a0<\/em>gave ear, and waited, and kept silence at my counsel.\u00a022<\/sup>\u00a0After my words they spake not again; and my speech dropped upon them.\u00a023<\/sup>\u00a0And they waited for me as for the rain; and they opened their mouth wide\u00a0as\u00a0<\/em>for the latter rain.\u00a024<\/sup>\u00a0If\u00a0<\/em>I laughed on them, they believed\u00a0it\u00a0<\/em>not; and the light of my countenance they cast not down.\u00a025<\/sup>\u00a0I chose out their way, and sat chief, and dwelt as a king in the army, as one\u00a0that<\/em>comforteth the mourners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Job was longing for the good-old days, for the days when he felt God had been watching over him. However, Job’s assessment of his present situation was not accurate. God had allowed Satan to take his best shot at Job. And because his life became difficult and painful, Job felt that the intimacy he had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7645"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7645"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16469,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7645\/revisions\/16469"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/packinghouseredlands.org\/devotional\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}