Affliction Comes To Slow Us Down From Living This Life In A Hurry

November 25 - December 1, 2008

Pastor: Edith Cruz

Study #568

TOPIC: “Affliction Comes To Slow Us Down From Living This Life In A Hurry” Job 42:1-17 Job’s friends did not know God, although they spoke of Him as they knew everything. It is proper for people to speak of God the way they think or believe, but to belong to God is different. There is a great distance between those who speak of God without knowing Him and those who really belong to God. The important thing here is how much is known about God or not. Job had great afflictions. But, let us understand that the reason for the affliction is because everything inside us has to be destroyed. Our inner self needs the affliction in order to be transformed and therefore perfected. Sometimes we live countless afflictions that are meant to specifically destroy what needs to be destroyed in our lives. We wear out ourselves so that Christ may come for us. Sometimes, those afflictions are like insanities that torture us and don’t let us have peace. Job had the best of everything anyone would desire to have in this world, all who saw what he had went speechless. But, nothing should overwhelm you or your heart, only God is marvelous! Sometimes we think success gives us peace, but success only allows us to see how insufficient we are. It is that peace comes to us only through Jesus Christ. The problem is that we want to manage the world with our strength and knowledge. That is why what happened to Job, who thought he could manage everything so well, happens to us. Job realized that he couldn’t manage everything as he wished, but that God is the one who manages the world. Sometimes we say things and have opinions, but we do not accomplish anything by saying too much. We argue with everyone because we think about how everyone who surrounds us should be. For that reason there is anger, annoyance and excessive criticism. Let us see what makes us act and think that way. We think that if everything goes well, everything is great, but when afflictions arrive everything changes. We bury ourselves and we ask God why. Afflictions come to slow us down from living a life in such a hurry! When the problem arrives we become paralyzed. Many afflictions come to allow us to die to what is in us, where we make so many plans. We think that when things go wrong it is because we are under God’s judgment, but God directs us in this way so that we can think over in our flesh and see that God is above us. Sometimes we think we are God and come to conclusions as if we had God’s mind. Sometimes we cry out so much when we’re praying, it is not out of love, but because we want to look good before the others. What God wants is for us to stay still and wait on Him. What God does is for our well-being. And sometimes we want out of that process as soon as possible. We like things to be quick. God wants to work in us, but the problem is that we don’t want to stop. God wants us to be humble, and the more humble we are the more God will work in our lives and give us more blessings. Let us tell God that we will wear ourselves out so that He can work in us. But we’re not capable of saying this, because we believe we can be so great. That is our nature, and that is why we have to go through so many afflictions in order to be taught by God. Job 48:2, 40:2 Are we going to argue with God and His wisdom? Those who have wisdom do not argue with God. Job 42:1 Let us not get mixed in those self-centered grounds. Job thought it over and apparently said “I give up!” before God’s unlimited power and His endless wisdom. Who can interfere with God? Job’s friends were not able to understand God’s processes. We cannot become confused by what we hear. God wants to make us understand what He is thinking. Job, a man who pleased God so much, became angry with God and began to contend with God. Sometimes, in the midst

of our affliction, we become angry with God and we start contending with Him because we think we are worthy. To speak of God without wisdom is to speak by what has been heard and not by what has been seen. To have God’s knowledge He has to take us through an intense treatment. God took everything away from Job. Sometimes, we speak according to what we hear or what is convenient for us, things that are not necessarily true. There is a struggle in our lives, we measure God. In our afflictions we are not capable of asking God to help us but rather we contend and defy Him. Nothing will alter God’s plan for our lives. He will do in us as He did with Job. It is best for us to surrender to God’s power. Job was the way we are, we become paralyzed. We should get to know God better because nothing will alter his plan for our lives. If God doesn’t work in us we will not change and we will be lost. Job recognized that God could do it all. In many occasions we cannot understand when God works in us. Every affliction that we receive is a trial, a lesson that God gives us. He made our vessel, then, He can break it and make it again. The fact that we have afflictions sometimes upsets us. Job tolerated a long and insane episode of disgrace, humiliation, grief, and physical and emotional pain. Having been the greatest man in the Middle East (orient), he was degraded. No one can take away what God has for us, but it is necessary to die. Job 1:1 Job was a perfect man, righteous, fearful of God and shunned evil. At the end he even hated himself. The day we hate ourselves we will realize that we are nothing; we will step aside and let God do in us. God wants to teach us what we are not able to understand. He just wants us to fall in His arms. Job’s friends did not have God’s wisdom at all. We can receive the best advice, but if we don’t have God’s understanding, everything remains dark. Job said: “I am the man and He is God. Those who understand know that God comes first. Our problem is that we don’t hate ourselves but rather we love ourselves more each day and that is why we formulate opinions. We are not capable of saying what Job said: “I hate myself.” God reprimanded Job’s friends. It annoyed Him that they did not speak of Him with righteousness. God is God; it is not how we expect. Job’s trial of innocence and integrity was complete when God allowed him to pray and make holocaust for his friends. His friends’ speech was as false as evil. Job 22:5 Job’s friends accused him with lies. God wanted Job to know that there was no reason to contend with Him. Job had to forgive if he wanted to be forgiven. In his tribulation and complaint he justified himself, but he was delivered and God took away his affliction. Let us go before God and we will shine like gold. Amen.