Think about this for a minute…
What if everything that makes you feel important, everything you publicly and privately thank God for, disappears overnight?
Your job… gone.
Your money… gone.
Your family, your reputation, your influence… gone.
Your business, your ministry… everything… gone.
Would your walk with God still be worth it?
Pause before you answer that… And before you say “God forbid,” you must remember that what you’re forbidding is a reality that some of the patriarchs of faith actually lived through.
Take Job, for example. Job was not just blessed; he was the standard. Deeply spiritual, committed and influential. A man whose life was the definition of “God has been good to me.”
If Job were alive today, he would be the keynote speaker at every major faith and business conference. A man whose voice carried weight in both spiritual, social, economic and political circles. Presidents would be honoured to stand beside him. He wasn’t just successful, he was established.
Just immediately after we see Job’s good life on earth, we see the parallel perspective of heaven about who Job really was:
‘And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?”’ — Job 1:8 (ESV)
Of course, you’ve got to trust the devil to have something to say:
Well, you know the story of Job, everything crashed in one day, and during this tribulation Job never cursed God, instead he recommitted his allegiance to God by saying “though God slays me, yet I will trust in Him” -Job 13:15. His allegiance to God was more important than the loss of material possessions and connections and every other thing that made him seemingly important.
You would imagine that God Almighty would respond swiftly to protect His honour in the life of Job, because how do you explain that a man who was once every believer’s role model has now fallen so badly? One may ask, what was God looking at? Or perhaps does God not care about His reputation? Everybody knows that Job is affiliated with You o. Job was perhaps the most consistent offering-giver to God at the time. Job, the employer of labour! What will happen to the numerous heads that depended on Job to fend for their families?
But Jehovah didn’t say a word in the entire book of Job until chapter 38; a very important lesson that God’s perspective on matters is very very different from the human perspective.
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From the human perspective, it looked like failure; it looked like disgrace.
It looked like a collapse of everything “good”
People began to talk. Some blamed Job. Others questioned his righteousness, because to many, suffering is always a repercussion of sin.
But they were wrong.
The same Job God was bragging about was now a subject of ridicule. How do you reconcile that?
It reveals something sobering: God’s definition of a good life is not comfort, it is a good report.
A life of righteousness.
A life of faith.
A life that remains aligned with Him… even when everything else falls apart.
Lessons From the Life of Job
- The life of faith not only wears you a crown of gold, sometimes it wears you a crown of thorns: You know, it’s very easy to stay on the faith lane when all is well! However, sometimes choosing your faith may be the reason you lose that huge deal or opportunity, the reason you walk away from that relationship or the reason you lose that job. Sometimes your life of faith may cost you your reputation. Think about Joseph on his way to prison, not because he sinned, but because he stood for righteousness. Think ofJesus hanging on the cross as a symbol of mockery and rejection. Never forget that the life of a man is not in the abundance of his possessions (Luke 12:15b NIV)
- He who takes the glory will take the shame: God is not insecure. He is not threatened by delay, He is not pressured by public opinion, and He is not moved by emotional manipulation. Sometimes, we pray like God’s reputation is at stake. Like if He doesn’t act, people will mock Him. God is not trying to protect His reputation because truthfully, it is not His reputation on the line… it is yours. God is not interested in building a version of you that exists outside of Him. So sometimes, He allows situations that strip you of every other thing you lean on, until all you have left is Him.
- Resurrection is the irrefutable proof of faith: You know Job had two options, curse God and die or wait on His redeemer. Every time you go through a tough or rough season as a result of your faith in God, you actually come out at the other side better than you’d have been if you had chosen the quick way out. Job was ten times richer, had even more beautiful children, and his comeback came with a reward that his predicament couldn’t outshine—same thing with Joseph and, of course, our precious Lord Jesus. If you allow patience to have its perfect work in you, you become an outstanding testimony and a blessing here on earth and also in heaven.
How to go through tough seasons of faith:
1. Keep studying God’s Word.
2. Keep praying.
3. Keep serving.
4. Keep walking in love and remain generous.
5. Don’t choose isolation; ensure you have a faith company.
Faith may not stop death, but it guarantees resurrection! And the question still remains — If everything else is gone… will God be enough?
Grace and Peace
Oluwajuwon Abolarin
X/IG — @_oluwajuwon_
Push Buttons is a weekly devotional of The PowerPoint Tribe.