Perhaps the one man in Scripture who demonstrates an incredible ability to endure is Job. Despite enormous odds, this man of God not simply endured, but profoundly overcame undeniable odds because of His faith. Job lost his wealth, his children, and even his own health, but remained steadfast in his faith, refusing to curse God or abandon his beliefs.

75 years of life have provided more than enough life experiences to learn the lessons provided not simply for survival, but reliance upon God.

Observing more than a few people working their way through the deaths of friends and loved ones and many of them because tragedies. There have been those who have endured loss of income because of many issues, bodily injuries, illnesses, and many other factors. However, death seems to be the most difficult of all.

My thinking is that sudden and unexpected deaths are the most difficult to confront. Most who are shocked by the news of sudden death find the pain and grief almost too hard to endure. Years of grief often cause life-long suffering.

Job, the biblical character demonstrating victory over many months of trauma provides every God-fearing person hope for tomorrow.

God taught me to love Him extremely as He traveled with me through the horror of observing my wife in search of a cure for cancer. There was no cure and death overtook her after many years.

What I discovered about my God is His allowance, sometimes, for extreme suffering. Job, the man, demonstrates God, indeed, delivers us from thinking that God is less than Who He really is. “He said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will return there. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. May the name of the Lord be blessed!” In all this Job did not sin, nor did he charge God with moral impropriety.” Job 1:21-22 NASB.

Like Job, I found that through personal emotional pain that God allowed into my life, my relationship with Him was/is increased by His grace through faith. The very same avenue on by which He saved me so many years ago. I can say He called me into ministry the very same way. God is Lord in all things small and great.

Paul writes in Romans 5:1-5, “Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained access into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory. Not only this, but we also rejoice in sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” 

The very same gifts of grace and faith providing salvation in Christ (Ephesians 2:8,) provide His purpose in His call for me to serve Him as being the glory of His love, power, and blessing toward others. Like the Apostle, I have “obtained access into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of God’s glory.” By His grace alone I was able to endure the deepest sorrows of life for many years. Alone I could not have done so.

I was never alone for God was and remains always present in all that I do each day. Not long ago I painted this image entitled “Thru it all.”

Jesus is Lord.