God Is Everything

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Job had it all. He had the family, the wealth, the life everyone dreamed of. He had everything that the people of his day considered a life blessed by God because of his righteous living.  He had lived perfectly for God. Job had everything. 
For many people, life is about success, achievement, having the prettiest car, having the nicest house, being the best mom, being the best wife, being the best housekeeper… blah blah blah! If you have all that then God must be blessing you for living rightly before Him. Right? For some it may be living a righteous life that brings them satisfaction, knowing they lived for God as they believed they should. None of it is bad in itself but I think we humans can take all of this "blessing" stuff a bit far and I know that we all have different opinions of what "being blessed" is.
For Job, it wasn’t about being blessed or about the things he had gained, the success he had achieved, the righteous life he lived but it was about the relationship he had with God. He knew that God would never leave him. He knew in his heart that he was a righteous man, someone who lived as God wanted him to.
Then came the evil one challenging God to let him have a shot at this so-called righteous man. We all got to hear the gist of the conversation between Satan and God. We got to hear the reason why Job was going to suffer. I think that somewhat disarmed us to what Job had to face.  He didn't get to hear the exchange in the spiritual realm. He lost everything and even gained some pain and heartache to go with the loss without a single groan of explanation. He did everything right and got the rug pulled out from under him for it. He didn’t understand why he had been stripped of all the blessings and been given so much suffering instead. 
It wasn't about his understanding all that was going on. He was determined to remain in God, praising and thanking him for just being with him.
“But as for me I know that my Redeemer liveth, 
And at last he will stand up upon the earth: 
And after my skin, even this body, is destroyed, 
Then without my flesh shall I see God; 
Whom I, even I, shall see, on my side, 
And mine eyes shall behold, and not as a stranger. 
My heart is consumed within me.” Job 19:25-27 ASV
For Job, it was about faith. He would not let his faith change with the circumstances of life. He believed that no matter what happened on the earth, his relationship with God would not be broken and he would be with God. It was about seeing Him with his heart, not just hearing Him with his ears.
Frederich Buechner writes, “God doesn’t reveal his grand design. He reveals himself. He doesn’t show why things are as they are. He shows his face. And Job says, “I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see thee.” [Job 42:5] Even covered with sores and ashes, he looks oddly like a man who has asked for a crust and been given the whole loaf.”
Oh that I could know I would respond the same way. That today, if I lost everything and everyone, I would not lose my faith. I pray that I would be grateful for what I had been given already, not expecting more, but rather that I would give all that was left in me to praise Him who gave it to me in the first place. 
What’s it about for you? What do you want it to be about?

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