“Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”
James 5:11 ESV
Purpose: the reason for which something is done, ones intention or objective
Many of us are familiar with the trials of Job. He had much and lost much. His story of loss can resonate with many people, especially in the trying season we are currently living through.
The story of Job can often feel like fairy tale of sorts. A rags to riches, fit for a Hollywood movie sort of story. The story is filled with interesting characters and plot twists. And since most of us have read the story we know what kind of story it is. In the end, it works out. The final scene leaves Job with greater riches and a full house.
The struggle with the story of Job and the story of our own lives is finding the purpose. Finding His purpose for the pain. Even with the story of Job we can formulate our own “purpose” for his suffering. Many messages have been preached on the subject. And while I am not here to give you my own opinions on the matter what I know as fact is that our merciful and compassionate Savior has a purpose.
Whatever situation you are going through today, whether financial, physical, medical or mental, He has a planned outcome and it is for your good.
“For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Jeremiah 29:11 NLT
His plans are unlike our plans. We can not see in the future. Not a minute in the future. Not a second. Definitely not a day or a year. Yet we plan. We make plans and we build our little lives around the plans we have made. And while there is wisdom in planning, if we are not careful we begin to trust the plan more than the Master planner. And when inevitably our plans fail because of circumstances beyond our control, a loss, a death or worldwide pandemic we are left wondering where God went. Why would God do this to me?? Why does He allow this to happen? What is he doing? This was not in my plans.
This is the space where we grow. This is the hard space of trusting the purpose of the process. When things don’t look like we expected, but we trust that His ways are higher than our own. For He sees the future, and his purpose is to prepare us for THAT future, not the future that we had planned.
My prayer today is that rather than looking for purpose in the process we can look to Him and find comfort in his compassion and mercy. We can rest in the fact that no matter what tomorrow brings, He knew it would come and He is in control. If we rest in Him, our future is sure and the end of our story will be a good one.
That Could Preach 