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FOUR SIMPLE CONCLUSIONS purpose for your life. If this were not true, the Bible would
Our text ends with these amazing not be true. “And we know that all things work together for
words: “In all this, Job did not sin by good to those who love God, to those who are the called
charging God with wrongdoing” according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). Eventually,
(verse 22). He didn’t ask why, he God turns every minus into a plus.

didn’t accuse God of not loving him, If you don’t come to believe this, you will eventually give
he didn’t claim his rights, he didn’t up your faith. When tragedy strikes, the tendency is to
curse God, and he didn't give up his search for a cause, a reason, an explanation, a chain of
faith. He simply said to himself, “If events stretching back into the past that would explain
God takes something away from me, the catastrophe you now face. But as you search for
I will thank him that I had it to enjoy causes, you will go back, and back, and back, until at last
for just a little while.” you come to God. And if you do not eventually conclude
As I ponder this remarkable story, that what happens to you somehow flows from God’s
four conclusions come to mind. loving purpose for your life, you will sooner or later give
up your faith altogether.
1. Undeserved suffering often
comes to righteous men and 4. Trials are designed to draw you nearer to God.
women. The one great Biblical purpose for trials is not, “Why did
This is surely an obvious lesson, this happen to me?” The deeper question is, “Now that
and although we have heard it this has happened, will I remain loyal to God?”
before, we need to hear it again. And that brings us back to A. J. Gossip’s sermon and the
Three times the text emphasizes that great question, “When life tumbles in, what then?” If we
Job was a righteous man. What turn away from our faith in times of trouble, what shall we
happened to him did not happen turn to? Have we not lost enough without losing that too?
because of any moral fault or hidden When life crashes in against us and all that we value most
sin in his life. is taken from us, if we then give up our faith, where will we
It is a human tendency when tragedy go and what will we do?
strikes to believe that if we had only Pastor Gossip put it this way in his sermon: “You people
lived a better life the tragedy would in the sunshine may believe in God, but we in the shadow
never have happened. Sometimes must believe in Him. We have nothing else.”
that is true, but more often it is not. If Steve Brown tells about a seminar one of his associate
the story of Job teaches us any- pastors was leading. During one session, the associate
thing, it is that sometimes godly pastor said that because God is love, no matter how bad
people suffer unexplainable losses. things get, Christians should praise him. Afterward, a
Terrible things sometimes happen man came up to him in great agitation. “Dave, I can’t buy
to God’s people. it. I can’t buy what you say about praising God in the midst
of evil and hurt.” Then he went on to say what many
2. God is the Source and Owner of all people secretly feel. “I do not believe that when you lose
you have. someone you love through death, or you have cancer, or
God is the ultimate Source of all that you lose your job, that you ought to praise God.” After a
you have, and He has the absolute moment’s silence, the associate pastor replied very
right to take that which belongs to simply, “What alternative do you propose?”
Him. Your house? It is His. Your job? We do not gain if we turn away from God in the time of
It is His. Your future? It is His. Your trouble. If we turn away from God, we lose our only
health? It is His. Your children? Yes, ground of hope.
even your children are His. They
belonged to Him before they ever CORDS STRONGER THAN STEEL
belonged to you. Your husband or As A. J. Gossip came to the end of his sermon, he said, “I
your wife? Yes, even your husband don’t think you need to be afraid of life. Our hearts are
or your wife. All that you have very frail; and there are places where the road is very
belongs to God. And in the end, you steep and very lonely. But we have a wonderful God.”
will give it all back to Him. Indeed we do. And as the apostle Paul puts it at the end of
Sometimes He will take back some- Romans 8, What can separate us from the love of God?
thing sooner than you would like to Nothing at all. Not life, nor death, nor tragedy, nor
give it. But that is His absolute right, heartbreak, nor suffering. We are forever connected to
for He is God. His love with cords a thousand times stronger than steel.
Nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in
3. Your personal trials relate to Christ Jesus our Lord.
God’s purpose for your life. The question remains. When life tumbles in, what then?
Your personal trials can never be Through our tears, we rest our confidence in one great
caused by blind fate or bad luck. truth. He who brought us this far will take us safely home!
They all somehow relate to God’s Dr. Ray Pritchard, http://www.keepbelieving.com