{"id":5070,"date":"2023-10-07T20:44:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-08T01:44:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=5070"},"modified":"2023-10-07T20:44:33","modified_gmt":"2023-10-08T01:44:33","slug":"devotional-on-job-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-job-9\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Job"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/-Sow_NeOIOwM\/Xx7zrPhmwiI\/AAAAAAABFn0\/omgiMYalnucqCm6cgqxOU2y-a3xeW6VTQCPcBGAsYHg\/s1600\/IMG_20190810_131345.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"948\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2019 &#8211; Watkins Glen, NY State Park<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nTelling it like it is<br \/>\nJob 3: Why didn&#8217;t I die at birth?<br \/>\nAll of my life I\u2019ve heard people speak of the &#8220;patience of Job&#8221; and, frankly, I don&#8217;t get it.  Just a quick read through chapter 3 reveals that Job doesn\u2019t stoically accept his condition.  He\u2019s miserable and he wishes he\u2019d never been born.  &#8220;May those who are \u2018good at cursing\u2019 curse the day of my birth,\u201d he says.  As I look at this miserable man I can\u2019t help but appreciate his stark honesty.  This guy isn\u2019t given to platitudes.  Instead, he tells it like it is, and at this moment in his life, life isn\u2019t worth living.  Somehow Christians have gotten the idea that we ought to behave as Job does in chapter one when he sincerely declares &#8220;God gives, God takes.&#8221;  We read that and make it our model for dealing with pain and suffering.  However, we need to keep on reading.  Soon we find this same man crying out against his own life.  Beyond that, to excuse Job as being &#8220;out of his mind&#8221; in pain is such a horrible put-down of Job.  Yes, he\u2019s in agony but he\u2019s still thinking and the things he says reflect exactly what he believes.  When we deny ourselves (and Job) the right to be absolutely honest about how we feel we destine ourselves to continue in a shallow relationship with God.  You see, when I\u2019m going through a trial God isn\u2019t interested in seeing me put on a brave front and hearing me say all the right things.  It\u2019s honesty that he wants and sometimes that includes our telling him, and others, how miserable we are.  Such honesty opens the way for God to work in our lives at levels we didn&#8217;t even know existed.<br \/>\nTake Away: There\u2019s never a time to pretend things are different than they are before the Lord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Telling it like it is Job 3: Why didn&#8217;t I die at birth? All of my life I\u2019ve heard people speak of the &#8220;patience of Job&#8221; and, frankly, I don&#8217;t get it. Just a quick read through chapter 3 reveals that Job doesn\u2019t stoically accept his condition. He\u2019s miserable and he wishes he\u2019d never been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1505,7],"tags":[133,561,798,1049],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5070"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14718,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5070\/revisions\/14718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}