Everyday Welkin

Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die." But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips. ~Job 2:10 (ESV)

There is nothing new under the sun. While Job was suffering, the rest of the world was going on as normal, and yet he never said a bad word about God. This is all to say that suffering is not something we should hate, because in every circumstance there is something to praise God for. Even then, how much worse could Job's suffering have been compared to anything we might face in this lifetime?

On the other side of things, I would just like to encourage the thought that when we are not suffering, we might consider looking at life that way anyway. It can be way too easy sometimes to remember God in our suffering...and to forget him in our complacency. Every day we should be striving to make it a new challenge, not dwelling on our past struggles/mistakes and not relying on our past victories, for even a victory can lead to comfortable, complacent confidence. The sun will always be looking down upon us from it's place in the heavens, and everything we do has been done before. We've simply got to wake up every morning and place our hope in God, for only he can help us put down our monsters-of-the-day and continue living for him.

Now all glory to God, who is able to keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into his glorious presence without a single fault. ~Zechariah 4:10 (NLT)