More Than A Hard Day

Today I finished reading a book that I have been working on for months. I finally dedicated myself enough to sit down and complete it. The book is called, Worship; The Ultimate Priority by Pastor and Bible teacher John MacArthur. In the second last chapter I was really struck with his insights into how Christians can and should worship in the midst of suffering. I would like to share it with you. 

    "When Job heard the news that everything he loved was gone- his possessions, his animals, even his children - he worshiped the worship of submission. The Bible Says, "Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head, and he fell to the ground and worshiped" (Job 1:20). Many people would have been bitter and cursed God.
    Job had not sinned like David. God was not chastising him for sin - He was allowing Satan to test Job. Yet Job said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord" (v. 21). His response was unquestioning submission.
    Many people are not able to worship God because they refuse to accept their place in life, their job, their career, their partner, their children, or the other circumstances God brings into life. Their response is bitterness and they cannot worship.
    Job was able to look beyond his present circumstances and see the goodness of God in His plan. Job said, "He knows the path that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (23:10). When God does bring negative circumstances into our lives He always has a positive purpose.
    In fact, we invariably get into trouble when we don't have problems because we don't really grow. In Jeremiah 48:11, God is preparing to judge Moab, and He says,
    
    Moab has been at ease since his youth
    He has also been undisturbed like wine on its dregs,
    And he has been emptied from vessel to vessel,
    Nor has he gone into exile.
    Therefore he retains his flavor, and his aroma has not changed.

    The people of Moab had it so easy and so smooth that they had become rancid. The analogy Jeremiah uses is from wine-making. Winemakers in Jeremiah's day put crushed grapes in a container and let them sit. Eventually the bitterness and the sediment - called the lees, or the dregs - would settle into the bottom. The wine-maker would pour the wine off the top into another vessel, and the remaining bitterness would settle into the bottom tf the second container in more sediment. Then he would pour that wine to another container, and another, and another - and over a period of time, all of the sediment and its bitterness would be removed (they used it to make vinegar), and the wine would have the aroma of sweetness that the winemaker wanted it to have.
    Moab had never lost its bitterness, because the people had never been poured from difficult situation to difficult situation, where the bitterness could be purged out.
     We are better off in life if God pours us from trial to trail, because each time we're poured into a different trial, each time we're confined in a different undesirable circumstance, a little of the bitterness of life is removed." 

May you be encouraged in the days ahead to trust in the Lord for His strength to endure hardship knowing that He will refine you according to His unfathomable wisdom.

God bless!

Holly

MacArthur, J., & MacArthur, J. (2012). Worship: the ultimate priority. Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.