What Do You Want Me to Do?

"Stand up! What are you doing down on your face?"(Joshua 7:10 NIV)

When trouble comes to our lives, more often than not we complain to God that we are doing so much to serve Him, so we say,"why did this happen?" A bit presumptuous! Why does God need to do anything for us?

Job is one who found out. In a cosmic battle between God and the accuser, Satan, God held Job up as a model citizen. He was above reproach. His accusers believed that God allows bad things to happen to "good" people because they are not really good. There is sin in the person's life (Job 4:7). Job refused to accuse God, but God knew there was a questioning in Job's heart as to why these things had happened to him. So, God confronted Job in Job 38-40: "Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him?" This caused Job to focus on the bigger picture. God is sovereign. He doesn't need to answer to anyone. Job replies in Job 40:4, "I am unworthy." That, for all of us is the proper perspective to have.

On another occasion, Joshua, the succesor to Moses, had just experienced the exhilaration of the great defeat of Jericho followed by a small defeat of Israel in a battle with Ai. What was Joshua's response? A pity party. "Alas, Sovereign Lord, why did You bring this people across the Jordan to deliver us into the hands of the Amorites?" His immediate assumption was that it was God's fault for their misfortune. God told him to stand up and revealed to him that the problem was in Israel's midst. Some items that had been devoted to destruction had been hidden by a man of Judah named Achan. Israel as a collective would not be blessed as long as their was this disobedience amongst them.

Whether our problems are due to a cosmic battle and not a response to our sin, as was the case with Job or, in the case of Joshua, problems appeared when there was sin in the camp, God wants us to follow Him. We are not to lament as to why we have misfortune. We need to trust that God is ultimately in control and has a purpose for everything. Proverbs says, "trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight." (Proverbs 3:5,6)

Pray: "Heavenly Father, when difficulties come, let me not say to You 'why did you allow this?' but say instead 'what do You want me to do?'"