Endurance for the Journey, Featured, Perspectives
PATIENCE?
His wife said to him,
“Are you still holding on to your integrity?
Curse God and die!”
He replied, “You are talking like a foolish woman.
Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?”
In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
JOB 2:9-10 (NLT)
You’ve heard of the patience of Job? To me that never made sense because the book of Job is one long list of complaints. Not one to take suffering meekly, Job cried out in protest against God. Even his friends were shocked at his anger. Goodness, most of us would bite our nails in fear and trembling if we ever talked to God that way.
God, however, does not get offended. He doesn’t get insulted or intimidated. In fact, in a supreme touch of irony, in the end God orders Job’s pious comforters to seek repentance from the man himself. I love that about God. Yes, Job’s patience was gloriously played out in that he refused to curse God and die. It was the Lord who demonstrated the very best of what it means to be patient. The patience of Job? It should be the patience of God. The God of Job – your God – listens to the complaints of the suffering. He may not respond to your questions with neat, pat answers, but He will always answer your questions with His own patience.
Joni Eareckson Tada
But God had mercy on me
so that Christ Jesus could use me
as a prime example of his great patience
with even the worst sinners.
Then others will realize that they, too,
can believe in him and receive eternal life.
1 TIMOTHY 1:16 (NLT)
On the journey with you,
Dave Dravecky
