Living Hope Church - Growing Faith

(Job 1:8-12; 2:1-10)

In order to exercise faith, we must accept the following principles:

Faith accepts the ways of God
Faith accepts the wisdom of God
Faith accepts the will of God

These principles help us to agree with Scripture that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

To use our faith effectively, we must understand that::

God has the big picture, we have the small picture all the time, at best we see through a glass darkly!

1Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.

Job 1: 6-12: Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. And the LORD said to Satan, "From where do you come?" So Satan answered the LORD and said, "From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it." Then the LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" So Satan answered the LORD and said, "Does Job fear God for nothing? Have You not made a hedge around him, around his household, and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But now, stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse You to Your face!" And the LORD said to Satan, "Behold, all that he has is in your power; only do not lay a hand on his person." So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

Comments: The story of Job is probably the most gruesome story in the Bible about how a righteous person can be afflicted by Satan simply to test his faith in God. Job came through, even though he complained to God that he was suffering innocently and pleaded for mercy and justice, with his faith in God intact. How did that happen? Because he knew that in the hands of God all things do work together for our good!

James 5:11 Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord - that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

Genesis 37: 31-35: So they took Joseph's tunic, killed a kid of the goats, and dipped the tunic in the blood. Then they sent the tunic of many colours, and they brought it to their father and said, "We have found this. Do you know whether it is your son's tunic or not?" And he recognized it and said, "It is my son's tunic. A wild beast has devoured him. Without doubt Joseph is torn to pieces." Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist, and mourned for his son many days. And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him; but he refused to be comforted, and he said, "For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning." Thus his father wept for him.

Comments: Jacob was an extraordinary man of faith. Although he believed the false story given to him by his other sons that Joseph had been killed by a wild beast, he did not complain against God. He accepted that he could not understand why this loss had happened to him. Joseph, similarly, went through the ordeal of his brothers’ hatred and treachery, the drudgery of slavery and the inhuman conditions he found in jail without once carping against God. He saw what many people often fail to see when things are tough and adverse: with God all things are possible.

Genesis 50:20 "But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

God adjusts situations and circumstances to suit His plans and purposes for our life.

Man makes a mess, God makes adjustments; man contrives, God controls; man plans, God ordains; man drives, God steers! God fine-tunes, modifies, alters, He makes necessary changes!

Genesis 25:23 And the LORD said to her: "Two nations are in your womb, Two peoples shall be separated from your body; One people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger."

Genesis 27:23, 27, 33 And he did not recognize him, because his hands were hairy like his brother Esau's hands; so he blessed him… And he came near and kissed him; and he smelled the smell of his clothing, and blessed him and said: "Surely, the smell of my son Is like the smell of a field Which the LORD has blessed…Then Isaac trembled exceedingly, and said, "Who? Where is the one who hunted game and brought it to me? I ate all of it before you came, and I have blessed him-and indeed he shall be blessed."

God aligns things

God brings events into line with His plans and purposes, He lines up people and events to fulfil His plans for our life; where things are out of line, He re-arranges them in a line, He makes the crooked paths straight

Isaiah 42:16 I will bring the blind by a way they did not know; I will lead them in paths they have not known. I will make darkness light before them, and crooked places straight. These things I will do for them, And not forsake them.

Isaiah 45:2 'I will go before you and make the crooked places straight; I will break in pieces the gates of bronze and cut the bars of iron.

When Goliath appeared on the scene, it was God’s method of clearing the way for David. When the Philistines gathered against David, it was God’s occasion to destroy those who stood in His way to greatness!

God has the overall control of all things!

He co-ordinates and orchestrates things. He is the hand behind the clock. The LORD organises, directs, manages, brings together, synchronises, harmonises, matches up, matches things together as we place our faith in Him

Isaiah 37:26 "Did you not hear long ago How I made it, From ancient times that I formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, That you should be For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins.

The famine in Egypt and the rise of Joseph, the years of slavery in Egypt, the killing of the infants in Egypt, Moses’ upbringing in Pharaoh’s household, the years he spent in exile as a shepherd, the years of wandering in the wilderness, the Roman census at the time of Christ – all these are world affairs that fulfilled the big picture of the story of salvation for the nation of Israel as well as for individuals used of God.

Whatever you are passing through use your faith in God to advantage. It is not over until God says it is over! Even then, if you are trusting in Him, the end is surely going to be a blessing!