Genesis 15:8 But he said, "O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?" The devotion started like this...Are you discouraged because a breakthrough that you have been praying for has yet to manifest? Maybe it has been days or even weeks and you are asking, "How will I know that I will get it?" Abraham faced the same situation and asked God the same question. Enter my reading in Job.
In Job 21, Job is basically asking why do those that don't serve God seem to be so blessed? Why do they continue to live like there is no God, and yet, they prosper, their children prosper, their businesses prosper and all I've ever had has been taken away from me? If we're all honest, we've felt those very same feelings, we see people who live like they want to bust hell wide open prosper in their personal life, get promotions that we've been trying to get for years, and we're still struggling. Enter scripture writing.
1 Peter 1:6-7 In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith-more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire-may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Are you catching the similarities? Abraham wondered. Job wondered. We wonder.
Back to Abraham. When Abraham asked the question, God answered. Genesis 15:9 And God answered, "Bring Me a three-year-old heifer, a three-year-old female goat, and a young pigeon." What kind of answer is that?! It's a God sized answer! As we read further on in Genesis 15, God enters into a covenant with Abraham. Not a contract. A contract is binding only for a period of time, like five years or seven year, or until certain terms are fulfilled. God enters into COVENANT with Abraham. A covenant is perpetual. It is permanent. The only way out is through death. God bound Himself to Abraham with an iron-clad guarantee of His blessings and provision. Abraham still had to have faith that God's promise was going to come to pass through him.
Now we go back to Job. Throughout chapter 21, Job is asking questions of, basically, why. Then in Job 22 we have that "friend" that makes me wonder if the person who came up with the quote, "With friends like these, who needs enemies" had read the book of Job and felt sorry for him. Then we hit the part of Job that is giving me a whole new appreciation for him, Job's recognition of coming out as gold. Job 23:10 But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold. Wow! Job has lost everything, yet his faith is still saying, "I shall come out as gold." The only way gold comes out pure, is to be tested by fire.
Abraham went through trials, Job went through trials and we will go through trials. As gold gets more pure the more fire it goes through, so does our faith and our faith is more precious than gold! What we can hold fast to through any trial we face, is this...we are in covenant with God through Jesus!
When that trial hits you, when that question of "why God" is in your life, when you don't see a way out, when you are feeling hurt, remind yourself of two things...1. This trial is but for a season and 2. you are in Covenant with Jesus and His covenant is one of healing, restoration, reconciliation, joy, grace, mercy and overcoming.
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