August 26, 2022
Daily Devotion:
"Praise Him in any Event… "
Job 2:10
New International Version
10 He replied, “You are talking like a foolish[a] woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?” In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
Listen to virtually any newscast reporting some calamity, and you are likely to hear some survivor say, “I just thank God that I was spared!" Maybe God truly did save that person from injury or death-it wouldn't be the first time. But what are we to think about all the other people in that plane or building who didn't make it out alive? Are We to blame God for their deaths? As Job begins to sort out the perplexing conundrum of suffering, he is certainly right to acknowledge the obvious, that not everything that happens whether good or bad-can be laid directly at God's feet. Yet even supposing that it could, Job is teaching us an even more important lesson: We should praise God in any event, whether it be blessings or curses. After all, we go out with exactly what we bring in-nothing!
To speak this philosophically and glibly of suffering does not mean that we don't have many hard questions to put before God, as did Job himself. It only means that we are able to put our suffering into a larger context. It also means that we are more hesitant to attribute to God whatever pain we experience. Perhaps we might think that if God sends us good, he is just as likely to send us trouble. On the other hand, it makes just as much sense to say that Because God sends us good, it is not likely he would turn and send us trouble! In the ebb and flow of life, sometimes things are good and sometimes they are bad. What's important throughout it all is that we acknowledge God's overarching sovereignty and praise him for an eventual escape from whatever suffering we might encounter.
The painful question is: Have I learned yet to praise God as much when I am truly hurting as when I am wildly ecstatic?
