Chastening, Teaching or Testing

“I will say to God, Do not condemn me; make me know why You contend with me.” (Job 10:2)

We are all familiar with Job’s circumstances. He was actually righteous. “There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. And that man was perfect and upright, and one who feared God and turned aside from evil.” (Job 1:1) But the devil who is the accuser of the righteous accused Job before God that he only did right because he was blessed. And so, God permitted the devil to take away Job’s blessings, then his health. “In all this Job did not sin, nor charge God foolishly.” (Job 1:22) His three friends came to comfort him but instead accused him of sinning. In those days it was thought that good and bad things came from God. (Job 4:7; 8:20; 11:14-16) Job laments because he knows in his heart, he did everything right. He can’t understand why “God would punish him.”

In our Scripture of study Job asks God to tell him what the complaint against him is. We are very much like Job. When trouble or affliction come, right away we review our life to see why the Lord would allow such difficulty in our lives. We examine ourselves to see if we’ve sinned, disobeyed God somehow, missed God’s direction and so it goes. But sometimes it’s none of these. It’s a spiritual attack of the enemy to steal, kill and destroy. “The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy. I have come so that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)

Some faith believers will be shocked to learn that yes, we do come into affliction and tribulation. Some believe that we can just rebuke everything that doesn’t feel comfortable. But Jesus said that as long as we’re in this world, we would suffer tribulation. “I have spoken these things to you so that you might have peace in Me. In the world you shall have tribulation but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

But when we come into difficulty, we must remember that God has allowed it for some reason. It may be a chastening of the Lord. “For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened by the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” (1Corinthians 11:31-32) We all sin, but we must recognize through the Holy Spirit those words, actions, attitudes or thoughts are not pleasing to the Lord. If we judge ourselves and repent (meaning turn away from it) we won’t suffer with the world. This is all part of the growing process in the Lord.

In America we’re very lackadaisical with our Christian life. God may be trying to get us to draw nearer to Him and to be more diligent in Christian practices. It could be He is stretching us, and we will only progress to the next step when we learn to overcome adversity.

The Lord may be allowing difficulty in our lives, so we’ll learn how to fight spiritually when the real testing of our faith comes. It’s through battling the different difficulties that we grow and learn to use the Word of God, the sword of the Spirit as a weapon against the attacks of the enemy. Unlike Job, the enemy is defeated. He no longer has power over us. “Behold, I give to you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the authority of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you.” (Luke 10:19)

Every difficulty, every trouble, every affliction and every anguish is an opportunity to bring glory to God. How do we react in such circumstances? Do we whine and cry helplessly? Do we get angry and fuss and cuss at everything and everyone around us? Or do we confront it with the Word of God, His promises to us and stand in the face of destruction like a soldier of the Almighty God on High, knowing the enemy will back down because He is already defeated? I know! It’s hard when you’re hurting, when you’re fearful and when doubts are bombarding you. We must stand and trust God. There is no other way but to believe God when our natural senses tell us a different story. James tells us, “Therefore submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) The enemy will flee in the face of our faith and belief in our God and His covenant with us.

Principally, affliction doesn’t come from the Lord, but He allows it for His purposes and for our good. That is one thing we must remember. Our Father is a good Father Who wants us to spend eternity with Him. There are lessons we must learn and unfortunately, we don’t want to learn them until we have to. Affliction is a quick teacher to change our way when we’re stepping out of the way, when we need to grow more serious and diligent with our Christian walk and when we need to grow in our faith as soldiers of the Lord, asserting God’s Will in this perishing world. God in His wisdom allows affliction to come into our lives.