Title: Playing theBlame Game / Topic: Suffering

Today's Reading: Job 39; Job 40; 1 Corinthians 13; 1 Corinthians 14

Scripture: Job 40:8
8 "Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself?

Observation: God asks Job this question. It is one we must all ask of ourselves as well.

Application: I know in my life I have had times when, like Job, I have questioned God's justice and blamed him instead of looking to see if I might be the cause of whatever trouble was coming to me or in order to justify myself with the thought that, “I don't deserve this. I'm an innocent victim”. Job learned, as we must, that sometimes we do have trouble that comes to us for no good reason. God himself declared Job to be righteous and told Satan there was no reason to punish Job with suffering. Yet Job is severely rebuked by God for his attitude of condemning God as being unjust. God is our only source of help in times of trouble. We cannot save ourselves—only God can. Job's suffering did reveal a victim's mentality and a propensity to depend on his own righteous life as a protection against suffering coming to him. A victim's mentality does us no good, ever. Jesus suffered though he didn't deserve it, and he told us we would have to do the same ( Matt. 10:23-25; Rom. 8:17; 1 Pet. 2:19 and others). So if we find ourselves chafing against suffering by blaming God or others, we lose the benefit we could get from it by learning obedience to and dependence on God, and we must repent, as Job ended up doing. There are two causes of suffering: first, our own sin or folly and secondly, suffering for Christ's sake (usually because of the sins of others). If it is for the first, we need to repent. If it is for the second, we have an opportunity to grow closer to God by depending on him and sometimes in doing so, we are also a witness to unbelievers by how we handle it. If we blame God or others in such cases, all witness is lost and we end up in the same place as Job did; in need of repentance from a bitter spirit.

Prayer: Father, teach me to discern the source of my suffering properly. May I repent whenever I need to and may I follow in Jesus' footsteps whenever I suffer for righteousness' sake. Help me to grow closer to you whenever I suffer for the latter, knowing that you are the only one who can deliver me. I never want to have any bitterness in my soul. Forgive me for the times when I have had that and have blamed you as Job did for unjustly allowing me to suffer. Give me a proper attitude toward suffering. I love you.
This I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.