My four times rewritten Friday night bible study. I started this one an hour and a half before youth, and I finished ten minutes before I had to be there. Sadly enough, this quickly compiled version is the one that says it the best.
Job's Trust
There's a man in the bible named Job, who the bible says was perfect and had a good reputation. He respected God, and avoided evil. He had ten kids, and thousands of livestock. It says that he was the greatest of all men in the east.
Job 1:8-12
So, the devil made sort of a wager with God, if he did this, then Job would curse him, and Satan would be right. Let me tell you now, Satan is never right.
Job 1:14-19
The bible says that Job then tore his clothes and worshipped. He worshipped! After all of that.
Job 1:22
God : 1 — Satan : 0
Job 2:3-7
Satan tries again.
Job 2:9-10
God : 2 — Satan... Still zero...
The rest of the book of Job is pretty much a conversation between him and his friends.
Job 13:15-16 in reply to one of his friends, Job had said
Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him. He also shall be my salvation, For a hypocrite could not come before Him.
Job chose to trust God. He chose not to listen to his friends' advice. He also knew that he couldn't just say that and then not believe it. He chose to believe that God could bring him through.
Because Job never bad mouthed God, and his friends had, God told them to go get prayed for by Job, because he had been better than they, even though he was the one with all the bad stuff happening to him.
Job 42:11-13
Job did good, and he was rewarded for it.
Job 13:15
Though he slay me, yet will I trust him.
We don't know why sometimes bad things happen, and sometimes it's really hard to trust God. But it's always worth it in the end. If you trust Him, He'll always come through for you in the end. Just like with Job.
Job hadn't done anything wrong, but the devil was trying to prove a point. And it still didn't work. Even without God's protection, Job still trusted Him and he never cursed him. Even when his wife wanted him to. His friends wanted to. And he probably did. But he didn't. He resisted the temptation to curse God and die.
Goodness knows it would have been a whole lot easier. Granted, he would have been dead, but he wouldn't be missing his kids or be poor or sick.
Because he resisted that temptation, he was rewarded double what he'd had before. He lived for another 140 years and saw four generations that came after him.
Trust isn't something you just say you're going to do or already do. Trust is a decision to make, and something you have to work at continuing to do.
I know that when my mom was diagnosed with cancer 3 1/2 years ago, I was scared out of my mind. I didn't want to lose her. I didn't want her to be sick. I felt helpless and I guess angry because there was nothing I could do about it. There was nothing I could do to help her. I was probably even a little a mad at God. And I asked the same question over and over, "why?"
You know, He never did give me an answer. But He taught me how to trust. He showed me that everything was going to be okay. He showed me that I didn't need to be afraid. If I would only trust. Because if I hadn't trusted Him, I would have had no reason for Him to prove to me that He could. Not that He should have needed to, but because I needed Him to.
Trusting isn't always easy, but in the end, it's worth a lot more than holding on to the fear that everything won't be alright.
Psalm 34:22
The Lord redeems the soul of His servants, and none of those who trust in Him shall be condemned.
Sometimes, when things are really hard, stepping back and letting God take over doesn't solve everything, but it does make it... better.
