Proverbs 10:24

Satan has been successful I think in making people - perhaps particularly Christians or those on the edge of believing - afraid of God. Afraid that He will bring terrible disaster or tragedy upon them in order to 'make them more like Christ'. They are afraid that He will take something or someone they love and so they end up never completely surrendering to Him because they think He will cause them pain and sorrow.

What a tragedy that is! God is love - He is grace and mercy and truth. He is forgiving and faithful and righteous, slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness and He only and always gives good gifts to His children.

Someone said to me a long time ago that what Job feared came upon him - that God deliberately and specifically, in order to rid him of his fear, brought exactly that into his life. That thinking of course has come from the enemy of our soul and its effect is to make us afraid of God and afraid to be honest with Him about our fears.

Whilst He is calling to  'come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden.....come with your fear and your doubt, with your anxiety and difficulty....come to Me and I will give you rest' - Satan has convinced them to run!

I thought about this as I read Proverbs 10:24 the other morning - 'what the wicked fears will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted'. It reminded me of that conversation all those years ago about Job and I looked again at Job 1:5 and was reminded that Job, a righteous man, was not afraid - he was simply bringing his family to the throne of grace for all that they might need. 

I do that almost every day - not because I am afraid that God will somehow bring upon me or them something bad - but because I know that He has promised blessing to me - that He will do all that is necessary to enable me to stand firm in His strength and to know the deep, abiding joy of my salvation. I bring them. because they might not take themselves - I bring them because they do not yet believe or because they might not quite understand - I bring them because they have needs and because I have needs and because  I know that I am powerless to protect them but I have a loving Father who is more than able.

Job's life with its suffering and pain is a picture of victory in the midst of the reality of this world and all that happens in it. It is the answer of God to our question 'why' and it is a glorious reminder that the desire of the righteous will be granted.

Job's desire was to stand before his God - his desire was to see God and so at the end God appeared to him. The last chapters of the book describe the conversation and the glory that was at the end of Job's journey.

Isn't that your desire? You want to stand face to face with your Father - you want to see Him in glory - to stand in His presence and to do as Job did - to fall in awe at His feet and to hear His voice. 

Today, right now, choose to trust His word to you - choose to run to Him and not from Him. Choose to submit to Him, to resist the devil and see him flee from you. Say no to the lies of the enemy of your soul and stand on the promises of God.

He will never disappoint you.