By: William Auki & modified by Brice Williams
Prologue:
There are 3 books of the Bible known as the “wisdom literature.” These are Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job.
Opening Question:
What is your name, and what could be given to you, to BOOST your belief in God?
Job 1:1-5
What impresses you about Job in these verses?
What kind of a person was he?
Job 1:6-12
How did Satan choose Job and how might he choose you?
What could be given to you, to REDUCE your belief in God?
If you lost all in a day, what would be your biggest question?
What do you think this test meant for Job?
Job 1:20-22
What was Job response after losing everything? He worships God.
What can you praise God for right now?
Job 2:9
Job maintains his integrity.
Integrity : (the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards)
What is your biggest obstacle today that challenges your integrity?
Job 3:
…..for the next 34 chapters, Job’s friends that come visit him probe him and his life to explain, God’s actions in his life. Surely, Job did something wrong for this to have occurred. Eventually, Job does curse the day he was born and even demands God answer for being so cruel in his life. God answer’s him in a vision but not directly explaining Satan’s request as much as showing Job the bigger picture. The conclusion was, God’s actions (in his case) were not vengeance. Job then went on his way and the following occurs:
Job 42:10-16
At the end, Job is doubly-blessed by God.
Why was Job restored?
Why did his family and friends now come back?
Does God always promise a happy ending?
What if your situation NEVER got better? (For some it did not. See Hebrews chapter 11, for example).
How do you think Job would have answered the question: Where is God when it hurts –both at the point when he lost everything and after being restored?
What about you?
The Answer:
In heaven, under control and looking at the bigger picture. God is love, and love is trust, therefore to love God means, trusting His plan for your life.
CHALLENGE:
No matter what we think makes us wealthy, healthy or wise, we must realize that the things of this world are only for a moment and can and will disappear. As such we must give ourselves to obeying God at all times no matter what we are going through.
If you find yourself being more or less faithful, based on circumstances in your life, ( like we all do at times ) I encourage you to get together with the person that invited you out and study the Bible to help maximize your faith in treasures in heaven.
….and that’s Bible talk!