Okay Lord, You Can Drive

It’s all around me today. Everywhere I look. People I know are facing some serious trials, tests and dilemmas in their lives. All of them love God, obey His word, but nonetheless, life can really beat us down. What do we do?

For me I can do nothing but praise God for being God. I thank the Lord I have a savior and don’t know how people get through life without Jesus. Life’s struggles are for everyone, not just Christians. Because of what’s going around me today, it’s no accident that the Lord has had me in the book of Job. This book has always been a hard one for me to comprehend. I remember the last time I read it I had to use the Message paraphrase just to understand it.

That wasn’t the case this time. God made it very clear to me what He had to say as Job was crying out Him in the midst of his life seemingly going down the toilet. Job was allowed to be tested by Satan as his children were killed, he developed a terrible skin disease and God seemed to be hiding. It got so bad that his wife even encouraged him to curse God and die.

Job heard the so-called council of his three friends as they kept telling him his problems had to be because of sin in his life. Meaning Job had brought this upon himself. Job kept asking for the Lord to show Himself and answer his charges, but Job could not find Him. Then the verses that jumped off the page for me came from the words of Job as he realized the Lord is sovereign. He’s in control.

“But he knows where I am going. And when he tests me, I will come out as pure as gold. For I have stayed on God’s paths; I have followed his ways and not turned aside. I have not departed from his commands, but have treasured his words more than daily food.” Job 23:10-12.

Could this not be life-verses for all of us? Let’s look at the different elements to this passage.

First, if we’re tracking with the Lord like Job was, then we are not lost. If you let go of the wheel God will do just fine as the driver thank you very much. He knows where you need to go and He knows the best way for you to get there.

Second, we’re going to face tests. Notice the verse says when and not if we face tests. I don’t think I could pray for anything better than coming out as pure as gold. Do you know valuable gold is today? As we learned in church today from the book of James, we pass the test when we persevere and don’t quit.

Third, if we don’t give up on God and try and take control back we will get through to the other side. It’s not obeying His word one day and then following man’s ways another. This is called being lukewarm. One foot in, one foot out. Jesus spoke to the church in Laodicea about this. "I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.” Revelation 3:15-16. I don’t want to hear those from Jesus and I don’t think you would either.

And finally the kicker part of Job 23 for me was the challenge, “Have I treasured his words more than my daily food?” If given the choice would I rather feast on the word of God or a prime steak? Am I being nourished by the things of this world rather than the pages of my Bible? A friend of mine shares this often, “A Bible in the hand is worth more than three on the shelf.”

May we all have a super-size portion of His Word today and don’t worry, the Lord’s got the wheel, right?