Blessed be the Name of the Lord

          I have taken for granted the worry free days of my life and now stand convicted of what it means to doubt God. This past week or so may have been the most hectic/stressful weeks I have had to face since my times at Moody Bible Institute have begun. I can remember no time here at Moody where I have been so distracted and eaten up inside, and as a result, has led to my forgetfulness of the Lord’s sovereignty.

          Recently the thoughts of having no money have taken over my mind. Distracting me from reading, from listening to sermons, from prayer, and from my school work as well. And until recent events, I thought there might be a chance that I could remain at Moody. However, as my uncle and my grandfather have revealed their will, I will be here at Moody no later than March 6th. I am dropping out due to financial reasons I regret to say, but I have done this and have forgotten about the all-knowing and all-powerful God who can do anything He wants. I felt as though God has taken everything away from me. There is another man in history that has felt the same because it actual happened to him. He goes by Job.

          Job was the richest man. Some, I have heard argue hear at Moody, say he was the richest man on the earth. It says in verse 3

        Job 1:3 ~ “He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.”

          Job went through, I think, the most horrible series of unfortunate events. Guess what happened to him? Well, Sabbeans took all the oxen and donkeys (whatever those are), fire consumed the sheep (very likely), Chaldeans took the camels (common in SoCal), and on top of all this, a huge set of wind came and killed the rest of his family (happens all the time). This man lost absolutely EVERYTHING and can you guess what his response was? If this was me, I probably would have killed myself, I mean can you imagine? All of it, gone in just a few moments of his life, and he lost it all. Instead, this is what he said in verse 21-

        Job 1:21 ~ “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.’”

          We see here the response of a truly righteous man. How convicted I stand when I compare Job’s response with my own. I need to remember, just as Job did, that the Lord gave me all I have. I also need to remember that He can take it all away too and rightfully so, because it is all His, that means me too. I own nothing, not even myself.

           A valuable lesson I learn from Job here in this chapter. What a Godly example to follow, it is my hope and prayer that all who read my blog would follow it likewise.

          This reminds me of the very first Christian song I sang at church titled “Blessed Be Your Name”. It also happens to be the very first song I had learned on the guitar. You know what the funny thing is? I probably play this song once a week or so and yet I still fall into the same distant land in my spiritual walk with God and forget to sing out to God in trust. God, blessed by Your name!

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