Lesson Learned # 83

The Lord gives and the Lord takes away... These words of Job never meant much to me until after we had lost everything. At first I questioned the decisions I had made and wondered if I had made different choices would there have been a different outcome. I looked around to see if I am really that much worse than the people around me who seem to be doing fine. Then I would remind God of all the things I had done for him. Surely there must be some mistake or was this just the circumstances of a bad economy?

There was no getting around the fact that God had allowed this to happen. I began to ponder why would God give and then take it back. Is this fair. As I raced through the scriptures in my mind I stumbled upon the children of Israel and the story of how God gave them the promised land. They were told to go in and possess the land.

I thought of all the times throughout human history that they lost that piece of ground and regained it. The word possess leaped out at me, and it occurred that God did not want me to own my business, and home, and things he gave them to me to possess and he could add and remove the things he chose.

I am encouraged by the story of Job, that God has the power to restore all that was lost. I am thankful for the lesson learned that I am to possess not own.