Daily Devotions 6th Feb 2017

Job 23: 10

When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.

No one would understand the trial that Job had to go through, it was not any fault of his as he had been a good man who loved and worship God daily. Even though he had been faithful to God in spite of all the severe testing he was experiencing all his prayers seemed unanswered.

Though his close friends who came and sat with him tried to get him to curse God and to renounce Him, Job’s faith never wavered. In fact Job was so confident about his relationship with God that he said ‘when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.’

The scriptures do tell us that our trials and testing sometimes are meant to train us to be stronger. First we develop patience and then we develop resilience and strength to overcome. It is when we have gone through small battles that we can gain enough skills and wisdom to win a war.

The lesson that we can learn from here is that being a Christian is not as easy as we think; our enemy’s job is to attack and try to cause us to lose our faith in Christ. If we fool ourselves that by being an obedient believer and being holy we will escape trials and tribulations, then we are greatly mistaken. Jesus Christ was a holy and righteous man but he was persecuted and went through trials.

The apostles were holy and righteous men but they too had to face persecution and testing. So the truth is that as long as we are in this world, as long as we are worthy children of God, then the devil will use his children to attack us in different ways.

Every pastor or leader who has been in ministry long enough will testify that they had encountered so many attacks and trials. The higher we go the more attacks we will attract. There is this saying among the ministers, as we go are promoted to a higher level by God, and then there is another devil waiting to attack us.

Taking the point in today’s scriptures we must adopt the same stance as Job, understand that God can and do use trials and persecution to train and strengthen us. Just as when a child learns to walk, he will stumble and fall, each time he gets up he will become stronger and firmer.

Let us understand this and develop and build our faith through a continued relationship with Jesus Christ even when we seem to be going through much trial. Let us remain strong as Job and know that tomorrow will be a better and new day in the Lord.