God wants to bless you. He wants to bless you by giving you good things. But often the greatest blessings can only come to us by having things taken away. What God gave Job after his suffering is quantifiable. But what Job gained in his suffering cannot be counted or valued. It is as unfathomable as the suffering itself. He met God. Was it necessary for him to suffer what he did to encounter God in this way? That question can’t really be answered, it is too logical; suffering cannot be rationalised and neither can God’s ways. However, as I have said, it is often not until God is all we have that we realise God is all we need. Life is a constant flux of gain and loss. The tide rises and falls but one thing remains the same: God. He is there when we gain and there when we lose. We never lose him and we always remain secure in his purpose. Not one detail of his wonderful plan for our lives can be thwarted, no matter what happens. We will be fruitful in the end and that is what it means to really live. It is not what you gain or lose that matters but what fruit you bear. We are here to love others and love will certainly cause you grief. Life is fragile and when you love you risk great sorrow from bereavement or betrayal. But shall we not then love? Like Christ we choose to love even if that means great sacrifice and even suffering. For life is about fruitfulness and in this broken world we need the fruit of love. Better a short hard life of purpose than many years of comfortable futility.
Ask God to do whatever it takes to make you more fruitful.
Read Job 42:10-17
