Day 26 Bible Reading

Job 1-3, Matthew 18: 10-35, Psalm 16

Job 1: 21-22 (ESV)

“And he said, “Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong.”

Verses 21 and 22 from Job 1 touched me today. Job’s first test from Satan was to have his wealth and his children taken away from him. Job was upset, but he did not blame God. I haven’t had the level of tragedy that Job experienced in my life, but I know I have blamed God in the past for all the bad things that did occur in my life. What I have uncovered this week is I don’t blame God for what happened to me, but I have anger at God for not stopping what happened. How could he allow me to have suffered so much from two significant events in my life? I didn’t even know I had anger at God for these events, because I had done some much work on them. But the anger is there, and I was holding on to it and resenting God for allowing the events to happen in the first place. I wish I had responded as Job had to this first test. If I find myself blaming God again for an event in my life, I’m going to read Job’s response to his first test to remind myself the correct way to respond. I can be sad and upset, but I cannot blame God. God will use whatever happens to us, good and bad, for our own good. And I have to trust that God always has my good in mind.