When everything is gone, what is left? That was the question of today's sermon. Job suffered through more things than imaginable in his lifetime. He lost his home, his children, his wife, and his health. Yet, in the midst of all his suffering he still spoke with God. Job cried out to the Lord in his anguish, and God answered him.
Sometimes we have to suffer so that we can appreciate God for what is good, for joy in life. We have to suffer to learn authentic humility, to recognize our true need for God. Yet even in our suffering, God is with us, he listens to us, and he cares for us even when it doesn't seem like it. You see, when everything we have is gone, God is not. He is the only steadfast in life, the ONLY one we can trust to be there for everything. When Everything is Gone, My Redeemer Lives.
who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ. If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer.
The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.
Sometimes we have to suffer so that we can appreciate God for what is good, for joy in life. We have to suffer to learn authentic humility, to recognize our true need for God. Yet even in our suffering, God is with us, he listens to us, and he cares for us even when it doesn't seem like it. You see, when everything we have is gone, God is not. He is the only steadfast in life, the ONLY one we can trust to be there for everything. When Everything is Gone, My Redeemer Lives.
I know that my redeemer lives,
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
and that in the end he will stand on the earth.
And after my skin has been destroyed,
yet in my flesh I will see God;
I myself will see him
with my own eyes—I, and not another.
How my heart yearns within me!
God offers us an unfathomable love. A merciful love. A forgiving love. A love beyond our wildest desire.
Every time we're down and feel that longing in our hearts, that's the empty place that ONLY God's love can fill. When we finally let God fill that place we realize that he's all we ever wanted or needed.
I invite you today to the throne of grace in the name of Jesus. He's waiting for you there, yearning for you to finally accept the great love that he offers.
For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
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Pleasant words are like honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones. Proverbs 16:24