You are gain, it is loss

So I already said that God speaks to me through sunsets.  Well, today I had a really great time with Him. And towards the end of it I felt the Spirit was telling me to reach back and get Branden's Bible that he left in my car (heathen boyfriend haha) and I knew that I had to open to Job. I thought this was odd because at this exact time last year I remember being called to open to Job and reading it. It was right before finals and camp starting up and I knew I needed to read it but I didn't know why.  Anyway, after again being distracted by the sunset (it is amazing to me how patiently God deals with us being so distracted all the time)   i read just the first part,

1 In the land of Uz there lived a man whose name was Job. This man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. ² He had seven sons and three daughters, ³and he owned seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen and five hundred donkeys, and had a large number of servants. He was the greatest man among all the people of the East.

 ⁴ His sons used to hold feasts in their homes on their birthdays, and they would invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. ⁵ When a period of feasting had run its course, Job would make arrangements for them to be purified. Early in the morning he would sacrifice a burnt offering for each of them, thinking, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” This was Job’s regular custom.

 ⁶ One day the angels^[a] came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan^[b] also came with them. ⁷ The LORD said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

   Satan answered the LORD, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”

 ⁸ Then the LORD said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.”

 ⁹ “Does Job fear God for nothing?” Satan replied. ¹⁰ “Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. ¹¹ But now stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face.”

 ¹² The LORD said to Satan, “Very well, then, everything he has is in your power, but on the man himself do not lay a finger.”

   Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD.

A couple of good reminders in this passage is that God always protects us, and he knows what we can bear.  

At first it kinda got my heart going a little as I thought, well, what if God is preparing me to loose something? And although that could be it, the main thing I got out of it is the fact that I am extremely blessed, and thats not to brag, because its nothing that I earned or deserve in the least bit, but I am blessed.  A lot of us are.  I just feel like giving was what I needed to dwell on.  And not necessarily money, but time and other things as well.  

After everything that Job went through, he still praised God, and that was not easy for him or for anyone who has lost anything, but I want to be able to do that as well (with His help).  For me right now to act as Job is inconceivable, but I do not doubt that God will give everyone the opportunity to respond to our blessings.  James writes, 

¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.

My prayer is that the more I trust that He is in control, the more peace I have when something (that wasn't mine in the first place) is taken away, or is given up.


Lord, you've surprised me
with how this all turned out.
With each new sunrise, tell me your will
tell it to me loud.
I'm done guessing
predictability is not Your game.
I'm handing you the pen now
erase mine, and put your name.

Strip away all of me
until there's nothing left.
Wash away all of my flesh,
I want to trust, I don't want to help
Take away everything, that I hold dear
I count it all as loss.
You are gain, it is loss
You are gain, it is loss