God Uses Ordinary People

I just felt inspired to share something that I thought about during quiet time yesterday with Sunshine. He had read the book of Job, and we talked about why God scolded his three friends who had come to encourage him through the adversities that Satan had put him through. We were puzzled over God's unhappiness with what the three friends had said despite the content being only about how great God is and how Job must have incurred His wrath to make Him want to inflict all these tragedies on him.

Much later, we searched online for an interpretation of the book,and realized that God had scolded the three friends for trying to find reasons for His actions. That made me think about all those times people had told me (I'm guilty of doing this to others too) that God must have a reason for putting me through hardship and suffering and maybe He wants me to learn something from this. 

But who am I to tell this to others? I am not God and do not know His intentions. In fact, this whole thing about Job started only because Satan had told God that he was sure that His people worship Him only because He is good to them. Once He removes these good things, they will curse Him and stop placing their trust in Him. It was definitely not because Job had sinned or because God wanted him to learn a lesson.

Throughout all this nonsense Job was facing, he merely questioned God's intentions and did not get angry at or curse God. I realized today that reading the book of Job was a rebuke from God, years later, about how I had been angry at Him for something I don't even remember...

What I can take away from this, coupled with all those times that pastors have talked about placing God first or in the centre of our lives in their sermons, is that I must always remember to look towards Him for direction, and not to be angry with Him for whatever He places in my life.

Hard to do, but I really must change myself :)