This reflection paper looks at my personal experience, compares it to Job 's experience, and applies a learning I have set before myself earlier this year.
Growing up in the Church, I heard over and over that the rain falls on the righteous and the wicked - I should not expect temporal blessing as reward for righteousness. Like a good little boy, I learned and regurgitated dispensational theology, knowing that the Covenant God made with the Israelites was meant for them, not me. When I was thirteen, my dad had me memorize 7 chapters of Proverbs. These, he said, would be foundational for me to apply my Christian faith. Contrary to what I was taught in my church, Proverbs delineates that God blesses the righteous, and that the wicked perish. …show more content…
Unlike Job, I numbed my mind in sin and distraction in an attempt to forget the truth: both the problem of pain around me and stain of sin within me. Job suffered incredibly while under God 's affliction, but God was magnified by Job 's faithfulness to Him. Satan wished to see Job forsake God, but no matter the test, Job remained bound to God, knowing that God deserved (though Job did sin in accusing God of injustice). While my resolve in the pursuit of Christ through my suffering could not even compare to Job 's, I now know in retrospect that my suffering was the only way for God to be glorified in a specific way. For the first time this summer - nearly 4 years after these struggles - I first saw the first fruit of my suffering in high school ripen for the encouragement of others. The fruit I enjoy myself is this: that I trust that God is still working in me now, today, even as I am encouraged by God 's faithfulness to me and my family in difficult times past. The residual effects of sin, pain, and suffering still impact me daily, but to know that God was there at every step of the way encourages me so much. Job was stricken, but he persevered, and continued to seek satisfaction and significance from the Hand that withheld. In this way, he was blameless, as I would myself be in the imitation of
Growing up in the Church, I heard over and over that the rain falls on the righteous and the wicked - I should not expect temporal blessing as reward for righteousness. Like a good little boy, I learned and regurgitated dispensational theology, knowing that the Covenant God made with the Israelites was meant for them, not me. When I was thirteen, my dad had me memorize 7 chapters of Proverbs. These, he said, would be foundational for me to apply my Christian faith. Contrary to what I was taught in my church, Proverbs delineates that God blesses the righteous, and that the wicked perish. …show more content…
Unlike Job, I numbed my mind in sin and distraction in an attempt to forget the truth: both the problem of pain around me and stain of sin within me. Job suffered incredibly while under God 's affliction, but God was magnified by Job 's faithfulness to Him. Satan wished to see Job forsake God, but no matter the test, Job remained bound to God, knowing that God deserved (though Job did sin in accusing God of injustice). While my resolve in the pursuit of Christ through my suffering could not even compare to Job 's, I now know in retrospect that my suffering was the only way for God to be glorified in a specific way. For the first time this summer - nearly 4 years after these struggles - I first saw the first fruit of my suffering in high school ripen for the encouragement of others. The fruit I enjoy myself is this: that I trust that God is still working in me now, today, even as I am encouraged by God 's faithfulness to me and my family in difficult times past. The residual effects of sin, pain, and suffering still impact me daily, but to know that God was there at every step of the way encourages me so much. Job was stricken, but he persevered, and continued to seek satisfaction and significance from the Hand that withheld. In this way, he was blameless, as I would myself be in the imitation of