After This…

Sometimes life happens. One minute you’re living your best life, and the next, one thing after another seems to get to you. All the sudden, something is happening with the family, with your health, with your job or school, with your friendships, with your finances….you name it - at some point, something will be coming for it. Occasionally, we, or even someone we know appear to walk under a raincloud. One thing after another tries you. The heartbreak and grief can overwhelm you as you think, “this is not the life I signed up for.” What will come after this?

I think about Job. In the beginning of this book, Satan is going “to and fro on the earth” (Job 1:7) and God says to him: “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil.” (Job 1:8)

Sometimes I wonder, could God say that about me? “Look at my servant ______. She fears God and shuns evil.”

Satan comes back to God saying, “Have you not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land.” (Job 1:10)

It can be easy to bless God and serve him when things are going well. Satan pointed out that God had protected and prospered Job, so of course he was faithful. But he wouldn’t be if that protection wasn’t on his life Satan challenged. God allowed for Job to be tested. 

Job lost his property, and his children. His response challenges my heart, while he grieved the loss, he responds with, “....Blessed be the name of the Lord.’ 22 In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.” (Job 1:21-22)

Next, Satan attacks Job’s health. And then he has three friends, who, in my opinion, weren’t so helpful. They say Job has sinned and should repent, and they accuse him of foolishness, and say it is the wicked that are punished. 

I love how Job maintains his integrity. He suffered so much loss and pain, his friends were less than helpful and not atl encouraging, but he refused to turn away. 

Now, not every undesirable situation we find ourselves in is meant to test us. We live in a sinful and fallen world where there are consequences to our actions and we can very well be impacted by someone else’s sin as well. But how often is our response to the challenges in life, “Blessed be the name of the Lord…”

Could our hearts be so fixed on God that we can respond that way in our suffering? Can we hold to the goodness and faithfulness of God and who he is amidst our circumstances? 

As we read through to the end, it says that the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends and gave twice as much as he had before. “Now the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning;” (Job 41:12)

What is after this? What comes after the struggles and the challenges that can come in life? I hope for a greater understanding of who God is. I hope to have grown. I hope to hold onto hope and to be confident in the faithfulness of God. 

One more verse I contemplate. Job 42:16: “After this, Job lived…” 

That’s a pretty big “this” that he went through. But after it all, God blessed him beyond his years. He died, “old and full of days.” (Job 42:17)

Part of me thinks, “Yeah, he lived, but maybe he liked his old life.” But maybe in the middle, we cannot even fathom what God has on the other side….after this. Through this, can I maintain integrity in my heart and hold to the goodness and faithfulness of God? Will my life declare his goodness no matter my circumstances? Could it be said that no matter my lot, I feared the Lord and blessed his name?

“Blessed be the name of the Lord…”