Inside Out Living

There is a difference between knowing truth about God and allowing that truth to impact how we live our lives. The same day I started writing about God’s sovereignty in Job’s life, I was diagnosed with pinkeye and was coming down with a nasty cold. I was miserable. Worse than that, I had become grouchy and irritable and was acting like a jerk (best word to describe it) to my family. After two days of my inappropriate behavior my wife had to confront me about it. I knew I was acting out, but it hit me like a ton of bricks when she said it. I realized how much of a hypocrite I had been for writing about God’s sovereignty in Job’s life while not allowing His sovereignty to control my life. I entirely ignored the fact that even though I felt bad, God was still in control and had a purpose for all this. Are you like me? Have you lost sight of God’s sovereignty in your life? Are you allowing life’s circumstances to dictate your behavior rather than the truth of God’s Word? I want to encourage you to take a step back, reevaluate, and recommit to living with God’s sovereignty as a constant reality in your life.

“God’s ways are as hard to discern as the pathways of the wind, and as mysterious as a tiny baby being formed in a mother’s womb” (Eccl. 11:5).

I would imagine that at this moment Job would very much relate to the above verse. Job is struggling to reconcile his current state with how he has lived his life. We all struggle with this same issue; we often ask the question, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” This may be an exclusively American question, though, because the majority of us live a charmed life compared to the rest of the world.
A key principle we learn from Job is that living a righteous life will not guarantee a life free of trials and grief. The purpose of living a righteous life or a life of obedience to God is not to manipulate God into blessing us, but rather to bring pleasure to our Heavenly Father who loves us.

Nothing exists that doesn’t fall under God’s sovereignty. This profound truth extends even to the existence of evil. Many have wondered why God allows evil to exist, but this question is ultimately futile because we cannot change the fact that it does exist. What we must focus on is how to live appropriately in light of the fact that evil is present in this world.

A large part of that issue is the ability to put Satan and his evil forces into a proper context. Satan is not the evil equal of God; rather he is a created being, a fallen angel who will ultimately be defeated by our great and glorious God (Rev. 20:10). The story of Job helps us to understand the proper context of evil. God, in His sovereignty, grants Satan a measure of authority in Job’s life. So we know that Satan and evil are real and have significant power and authority in this world. However, none of it is beyond the sovereignty of God. Thus, in spite of evil, the believer can rejoice in the sovereignty of God and the knowledge of the Lord’s ultimate victory.