|
Dealing
with Difficulty ... and other writings.
|
I'm A Big Boy, Now
Sammy Poole
Nov. 17, 2001
What a tangled web we wove,
When from our land the Lord we drove;
Our world around began to fall,
Folk asked, "Where God was through it all?"
His answer came with pained chagrin,
'You told me to leave ~ Not to come in;
That you were big enough to handle your care,
You had no need for Me ~ and prayer.
'I took you at your word, you see,
You were big now, and didn't need me;
I stood there watching the big boy fall,
Waiting once more for you to call.
'And in spite of all your pride and sin,
I'm ever present, as I've always been;
So, humble yourself beneath my hand;
I'll hear from heaven, and heal your land.
Remember, this time, with all its woes,
And learn the truth a Big Boy knows;
I am God; I hear the pleas,
Of child, or nation, on it's knees.'
DEALING
WITH DIFFICULTY
By: Sammy Poole
Have
you ever wondered how life can put such a hurtin’ on you
– when you least expect it? Job was a man who had the
world on a string, and people throughout the land in which
he lived knew Job; if not personally, certainly by
reputation. He was the richest man in all the east, and when
people wanted words of wisdom Job was one to whom they
could turn.
One day God and Lucifer had an
encounter in which Hell’s bad boy told God, “he had
been walking to and fro across the earth seeking those he
might devour.” When God asked, “Have you considered
my servant Job?” Satan accused God of “putting a hedge around Job,” thus disallowing the Prince
of Darkness access to him. “Let me at him, and I will have
him cursing You to Your face! Every man has his price ... Job doesn’t serve You for nothing!”
That was quite a challenge, but God
is always up to the challenge, so he removed the hedge,
opened the gate, and let Satan take his best shots. Satan used
every militaristic strategy in his arsenal, but to no avail.
Even Job’s wife ran low on patience, asking her beaten and
scarred husband, “Do you still maintain your integrity? Why
don’t you just curse God – and DIE?”
Job’s friends came calling, and they had a book of reasons
'committed to memory' as to why Job was suffering. With
friends like Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar, a kind-hearted
enemy might be a welcome sight! They no doubt 'meant well,'
but their ‘distress-side’ manor was lacking.
Job’s health in shambles, his ten
children dead, his wealth gone, his friends talking
nonsense, and his wife suggesting he “curse God and die”
... well, who would expect a man to endure such torture?
Only God, perhaps, but God knew Job! And when Job finally
said, “I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that, in my
flesh I shall see God,” he was well on his way to
immortality.
When He took a sword of faith and
shook it in the face of the world, the flesh, and the
devil, and shouted with what strength he had left, “Though
He slay me, yet will I trust Him,” there was nothing Satan
and his minions could say.
God knows I am not Job. Were
God to name someone today who was like Job, He wouldn’t
name me. Still, God has allowed me to go through cancer, in
1975, and to join the millions who have Parkinson’s Disease.
The question arises, ‘How do I cope?’ When the
shakes refuse to allow me to type, eat, hold a glass of ice
tea ... (without sounding like a rattle snake in distress,)
how does one cope?
According to Job, the “foolish”
think of “cursing God.” The wise on the other hand,
ask: “Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and not
evil?” God sends his rain on the just, and the unjust.
While “His mercy endures to all generations,” he also
“reproves, rebukes, and chastens;” and, “those who are
without chastisement are bastards, (illegitimate), and not
sons of God.”
The Bible is filled with promises
of God’s faithfulness. “Lo, I am with you, even to the
end of the age."
“Weeping endures for the night,
but joy comes in the morning.”
“Now you know that no chastening
seems good for the moment, but painful, but, we know that in
due season we shall reap – IF WE DO NOT FAINT!”
The apostle Paul had his
“thorn in the flesh,” but was the man God used to give
the world a major portion of “sacred writ,” called the
Bible.
One evangelist had such terrible
vision, that, he had to hold his sermon up to his eyes, as
he preached his immortal sermon, “Sinners In The Hand of
An Angry God,” but God used that sermon to move
multitudes.
“Behold, the ear of the Lord is
not heavy so that He cannot hear; neither is His arm shortened that it cannot save.”
Jesus said, “Let not your heart
be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me …”
Fear was a part of most every life,
so angels were forever saying to God’s people, “Fear
not.”
We must have faith that God is
greater than any problem we face. It is necessary to always
know that God can, but may not, heal us of every malady we
face. He could, though He often does not, keep the devil
from attacking us. He has the power to protect us, as if we
were in a divinely created care-free, trouble-free, and
anxiety-proofed, box. God often allows us to “walk through
the valley of the shadow of death,” however, even though it is not
necessarily a pleasant experience.
What He assures us, thankfully, is,
He will walk with us through the valley, lead us beside
still waters, prepare a table for us in the presence of our
enemies, and anoint our head with oil; and, that, goodness
and mercy would follow us “all the days of our life.”
Having made such a wonderful
promise, we are still to be mindful that, “without faith,
it is impossible to please God.” We often have to do as King
David did, “encour- age ourselves in the Lord;”
accept the
fact that pain is a part of life, and there will be times
when God will give us miraculous, and immediate,
deliverance. Those times are wonderful, but not guaranteed.
No matter which way the winds blow in our life, however, GOD
IS LOVE! He is mindful of our weaknesses. He knows our
frame.
|
