Tough Worship

Job 1:20,21 "Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."" ESV

 

All I can say is: "Wow". Job was a rich guy in the land of Uz. He had it all and his kids were healthy and well supplied. In fact, Job had more than enough…and he lost it all. Livestock, gone. Servants, gone. Children, dead. And how did he respond? He worshiped.

 

I am not sure that this would be my first response. Probably my first response would be to scream, yell out "Why?", and then cry. Not Job. Sure he grieved and tore his robe and shaved his head but then he did something out of the ordinary. He worshiped. This guy had a different perspective. He realized that he came into this world with nothing and that the things that God gave him in this life were temporary because he would leave this world with nothing. The only thing that was eternal that he could hang onto was God…so…he worshiped and said: "Blessed be the name of the Lord."

 

Here is that eternal perspective again. Maybe Job could have said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever, so blessed be the name of the Lord." Now there's perspective. I know that I added David's words here, but that was basically where Job was coming from. He knew that he could not, he knew that he should not hang on to those things that he had on this earth. What he hung on to was his God and he worshiped.

 

I have been blessed with a lot. A great wife. Amazing kids. A beautiful grandchild. Cars, and house, and clothes, and food, and money. Everything that I could ever need. The question: What is my perspective? If I lost it all, would I be like Job and worship? Challenging stuff. It really shows what I am focusing on.