It got me thinking about Job. In the book of Job, Job is described by God as "blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil" (Job 1:8). Job had done nothing wrong and yet very bad things were about to come upon him. Satan had just gotten back from roaming around the earth trying to stir up some trouble. He approached the Lord and the Lord CHOSE Job and gave the Devil permission to bring bad things upon him because the Lord knew that Job would be faithful to the Lord. The Lord had to give Satan permission to lay his hands on Job (Job 1:12, 2:6). Satan couldn't touch Job without that permission from our Heavenly Father. Yet the Lord also gave Satan stipulations on what he could do to Job. The Lord didn't just let Satan go crazy and do whatever he wanted. Then we see that Satan brought the affliction on Job (Job 2:7).
The Lord chose Job for Satan to bring affliction on...this brings me back to the original verse "I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." I know that nothing happens to me that hasn't passed through the Lord's hands first, nothing can happen to me that He hasn't allowed. But hearing this Bible verse just really got me thinking about Satan's role in all of it. And frankly, it just confused me. Here are the questions that it brought to my mind...
- Are all bad things caused by Satan or did sin enter the world through Satan and now bad things just happen on their own?
- We, as humans, have a sinful nature so I can see how murder, adultery, lying, etc. are rooted in our sinful nature...but what about natural disasters, sickness, infertility, etc. that our sinful nature doesn't directly bring on? Are these things results of Satan asking the Lord "Can I do this? Can I make this happen?" Or do all these things happen just because sin is a part of our world?
I don't know if these are questions that will be answered this side of Heaven, but in the grand scheme of things how I respond should be the same way. Regardless of if God chose me to go through infertility or if because of sin, it just happened (with His permission)...I should trust Him and have faith that His plan is good. However that plan came about...but man is it hard.
Job is certainly an interesting book to study in light of IF. It was a huge encouragement to me and opened my eyes to things I hadn't thought of before. And I wonder if it would mean as much to me if I hadn't been through IF. Not sure.
ReplyDeleteI read your Atlanta post....wow! I can relate to those same feelings. It happened to me when a teenager that I mentored for years (she is like a 3rd generation welfare recipient) got pregnant. We were still in the thick of IF treatments when she got pregnant and then later invited us to her little girl's first birthday party. Talk about HARD TO SWALLOW! But I was doing the Patriarch's by Beth Moore at that time and one of her lessons was about this very topic: when the wicked receive blessings while we are waiting. I felt like it was written just for me at that point in time. She went on to encourage us to wrestle for our blessing like Jacob did. Don't give up. Don't "demand" the blessing but wrestle with God for it. You may end up with a limp (like possibly Jacob did from having his hip out of joint) but the blessing was fulfilled.
Wow, deep thoughts!! I will have to ponder some more before commenting specifically!!!
ReplyDeleteI never comment on blogs nor do I have my own, but I can't help but comment on yours. Our stories are very similar! I too have always wanted to be a mother. My husband and I thought we would wait a year to start trying, but I talked him into trying earlier. We started trying in March 2008. I too thought something was wrong, but waited until we hit the 1 year mark to get tested. We found out that my husband had low sperm count and after seeing a urologist that he had a varicocele. Three months later, he had surgery. Now we are waiting to see if that surgery worked and what the Lord wants our next steps to be. If you would like to talk sometime my email address is renae72000@aol.com
ReplyDeleteTake care,
Alicia