Hard Things

“Will a man rob God?
Yet you have robbed Me!
But you say,
‘In what way have we robbed You?’
In tithes and offerings.
⁹ You are cursed with a curse,
For you have robbed Me,
Even this whole nation.
¹⁰ Bring all the tithes into the storehouse,
That there may be food in My house,
And try Me now in this,”
Says the Lord of hosts,
“If I will not open for you the windows of heaven
And pour out for you such blessing
That there will not be room enough to receive it."

Mal. 3:8-9

So it turns out my husband's job did let him go after all. 

I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around why, as most do, when bad things happen. 

These verses are about being under a curse for not tithing.  That is a possible reason for all of this, because he/we have not been tithing as I knew we definitely needed to be. 

At the beginning of Job God asked Satan if he had seen his servant Job and how faithful he was.  My husband could be Job in this situation. 

The story of Job was meant to glorify God, because it showed that even though God allowed horrible things to happen to Job, caused by Satan, but allowed by God, Job did not turn his back on God.

It was not because of anything Job did. 

Job's friends tried to tell him that there must have been some unrepentant sin in his life.  He must have done something wrong to deserve all of that.  Which is what people sometimes do with us don't they, when things go wrong for us. :( 

Why would Job's friends think that?  Well most of the old testament did function on a system of blessings and curses.  If you did good, God would bless you.  If you did bad, God would curse you and punish you.

My mom thinks maybe this doesn't apply now since we are under the new covenant, but look at Ananias and Saphira, they dropped down dead; God killed them instantly for lying to Peter in the early church.  So we still reap what we sow. 

Our actions are still somewhat cause and effect. 

But on the other hand, "Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against....."  Satan and his demons.

Satan wants to oppose us.  Regarding my current situation, I know Satan doesn't want people who love God raising a kid. 

Satan hates unity.  Satan hates marriage.  Satan hates babies too I would say.  Look at abortion. 

He just hates us, and wants to do everything possible to make our lives miserable.  :(

So I know all that, but it still is confusing to me why God allows bad things.

One Jewish man I think wrote the book, "Why do bad things happen to good people?"  He concludes that either God is not good or he is not all powerful.

But we know God is good.  God is love.  But the all powerful aspect is harder to understand. 

Ultimately God controls everything.  Ultimately God can stop anything and do anything.  But for some reason he allows Satan to do A LOT huh?  Strange isn't it?  But we handed our dominion over to Satan when we sinned in the garden.  So we only have ourselves to blame; our own selfishness and rebellious nature. 

It is not God's fault.  But then the question could be raised, as I have thought many times, why did God still create man when he knew we would fall and he knew our lives would be so hard?

That I cannot answer and that will be my first question for God when I get to heaven. :)  Definitely. 

There are many mysteries and things we do not understand at all because God's "ways are higher than our ways."  We cannot see things clearly often, because we only see in one dimension.  God sees everything at once. 

In regards to my husband's job, it was probably slowly killing him.  So I'm sure this will all be for the best.  What job requires people to report every morning at 3am?  Very strange. 

May God open a door where he can work no more than 16 hours a day, because that is only reasonable, and where he can sleep every night.  Amen :)

They had him working 32 hours straight sometimes, with very short breaks to nap.  :(

 Pray for us; that God would open the best door at the best job where he works less hours.  Amen. :) 

May God's will be done. :)