{"id":5106,"date":"2023-10-24T23:23:11","date_gmt":"2023-10-25T04:23:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nazareneblogs.org\/pastorscott\/?p=5106"},"modified":"2023-10-24T23:23:11","modified_gmt":"2023-10-25T04:23:11","slug":"devotional-on-job-26","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/devotional-on-job-26\/","title":{"rendered":"Devotional on Job"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure style=\"width: 1600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/2.bp.blogspot.com\/-q84jcVQZg0s\/XzW0mXw0elI\/AAAAAAABFwU\/hYbYrqKsiFsIFC6WhMkrcTlRmschk5OLgCPcBGAsYHg\/s1600\/IMG_20190815_133009.jpg\" width=\"1600\" height=\"918\" class=\"size-large\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">2019 &#8211; Niagara Falls, NY<\/figcaption><\/figure><br \/>\nServing God for nothing<br \/>\nJob 30: What did I do to deserve this?<br \/>\nJob&#8217;s final reply to his friends is his longest speech.  He doesn&#8217;t summarize so much as restate all he has already said.  He\u2019s cried out to God for justice, but can&#8217;t get an answer.  He\u2019s lived a just life, avoiding immorality, falsehood, dishonesty, and pride.  He\u2019s treated people with respect and honesty, caring for the poor and the stranger.  Now, in the midst of the trial, all he\u2019s wanted is an audience with God, an audience which has not been granted.  Job, like his friends, believes that bad things only happen to bad people.  He maintains that he\u2019s lived a life pleasing to God, yet bad things are happening.  If he could only sit down with God and work all this out!   Were that to happen, he\u2019s sure this mess could be straightened out.  Among all the other losses Job has suffered is the loss of his comfortable understanding of God and life.  However, even with that taken away (and maybe this is the last thing to go) Job continues serving God.  And he does so, yes, for nothing!  At this point, Satan&#8217;s accusation from the opening paragraphs of this story is proven false.  In spite of the suggestion otherwise, a man will love and serve God even when he\u2019s getting nothing out of it; even when it seems God, himself, is breaking the rules; even when all else is taken away.  If the book of Job ended with chapter 31, the point of the whole story is made.<br \/>\nTake Away: Yes, it\u2019s possible for a person to love the Lord and trust the Lord even when there appears to be no tangible gain in it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Serving God for nothing Job 30: What did I do to deserve this? Job&#8217;s final reply to his friends is his longest speech. He doesn&#8217;t summarize so much as restate all he has already said. He\u2019s cried out to God for justice, but can&#8217;t get an answer. He\u2019s lived a just life, avoiding immorality, falsehood, [&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":[133,342,798,1049,1108],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5106"}],"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=5106"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5106\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14756,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5106\/revisions\/14756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/localhost\/pastorscott\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}