Job–Patience and Perseverance in Suffering

We live in a fast-paced world. Everybody seems to be in a hurry; speeding towards meeting one deadline or the other. And in all this busyness we are fast losing the fruit of the Spirit of patience.

We also begin to expect instant achievements and success. But they are not won that way. And sadly these kind of attitudes have intruded into the Christian world like no time before.

In Focus
Look at Job. He was a man who lost all his sons and daughters, and all his livestock, in the space of one day. Later he was affected with painful sores all over his body. His wife asked him to curse God and died.

His friends who came to comfort him found fault with him and misrepresented God to him. Thus he was assaulted and afflicted at every turn. And he did not have the knowledge that we now have; that God had allowed Satan to torment him.

Yet he was patient in the face of suffering. He was finally confronted by the Lord who asked him a series of questions instead of giving him any answers as to why he had suffered. Even then Job bowed to God with meekness and full submission.

Finally God blessed him and made him prosperous again. God gave him twice as much as before. So Job ended up with a double blessing.

Signature

Most of us will never be called to go through the kind of suffering that Job had to face. Yet we may go through some kind of suffering which has no visible cause and with no clue as to its end. Comforting words will sound oppressive to us during this time. We may be left with more questions than answers.

Yet this signature on the life of Job tells us that if we can be patient in the face of suffering; if we can persevere by clinging to God, who is full of compassion and mercy, we can reach the double blessing that God has kept for us at the end of it all.

Signature found at: James 4:10,11 NIV

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