The bible tells us that job was a man who lived in the land of Uz. He was rich in his day and had no need of anything. Job prayed and thanked God daily. He had a great commitment to Worshipping God and he also had tremendous faith. Job is my inspiration for acquiring faith. Job lost all of his children, his animals and all of his wealth in one day. The bible says that Satan went before God in regards to job and God gave him permission to do to job whatever he wanted to do, so he gave him boils from the top of his head to the sole of his feet. In the loss of his children and all of his wealth job never stopped believing in God. In the book of Job, Jobs wife says to him 2: 9 dost thou still retain thine integrity? Curse God and die. But Job says to his wife, what? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and not receive evil. Just keep in mind that the Lord did not do these things to Job but it was Satan who did this.I have personally met people who say that they no longer believe because of situations that arose in their lives. When I encounter something which seems too big to handle I revert to Job the man who never lost faith and received more blessings in the end than at his beginning.
In my younger days of reading the bible I wondered if I could ever have job's faith. I knew that I wanted to have the faith of those people in the bible. I wondered if things just happened or do we pray if we want things to change. So years down the road I had a problem, I don't quite remember what kind of problem it was, but my circumstance remained the same for awhile. I finally prayed and my circumstances changed. Instead of praising God I wondered again; did this situation change because I prayed? or if I had not prayed would this have been the outcome. I realized that I had been waiting for awhile and nothing changed until I prayed. So I learned to thank God and stop wondering and start believing. I suppose when I was younger I was having my battles as to whether God really answer prayers. I remember while I was in my teens I was reading and praying a lot and actually looking to the sky and asking myself " is there really a God? I also know that while I was growing up I was always taught to pray for my meals. Well, here I am at McDonald's with some friends from school and was embarrassed to pray for my meal. I actually looked around to see if any one was looking because I did not want others to think I was crazy because I am talking to the air or wind. That incident made me realize that if I am going to pray and believe in a God who I have never seen, and some people do not believe in, I must believe in him always regardless of who I am around. It was years later when I read in Mathew 10:33 whosoever shall deny me before men, him I will also deny before my father which is in heaven.
After September 11, 2011 and the housing market crash I noticed that a lot of people were committing suicides. My only wish was that I was their to talk to that person and let them know about Gods grace and mercy. If only they had learned to rely on the Lord. There are times in life when we Become overwhelmed with our problems and issues. Some people have financial problems, some have marital problems, mental issues, weight issues, family problems. I could go on and on but my point is this. For every problem there is a solution and my God is bigger than any problem that we can ever encounter. Problems, hurt and pain do not last forever.
Malachi 3:7 says" return to me and I will return to you. We spend a lot of time stressing about situations that we are not able to change, (not by our self anyway). If we took the time to ask God to intervene in our lives and not give up hope we would have a solution. In my journey on this earth I have had roadblocks, some twist and turns. Life has not always been easy but it has not always been bad either. I know that my belief in the Almighty has kept me from loosing my sanity and giving up. When we run out of options and have tried every thing else then the next best thing is to try God. He has changed me tremendously. I am no longer that irrational thinking always angry individual. I now have a peace that Satan would like to take away but what my God gives no one can take away. I truly am amazed at what God has done for me and hope that you allow him to change you.
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