God said to satan, “Have you considered my servant Job” in Job 1:8. God called Job his servant. You can only be God’s servant, if you are serving him in the way you live your life. In the way you treat other people. God says Job shuns evil, and is upright in all things. The word “upright” means one who is honorable and honest in all things. Job was a man of his word. He was honorable. What he said, is what he did. And he did what was right with or without an audience. God also said he shun evil. Sin is the epitome of evil, so Job hated sin just as God did.

Looking at Job’s character through the lens of God, it’s easy to see how God declared Job as his servant. Job was a man of great wealth, health, family, and God’s grace. He sought to do what was right in the eyes of God. Job had much, and his abundance of things is what satan would use to declare to God why Job was so upright and blameless before God. 

Satan suggests to God, Job is only your servant because you give him everything and bless everything he does. You’ve put a hedge around him and his entire household. They lack nothing nor want for anything. Job would be a fool to not worship you!

God Puts A Hedge Around Those He Loves

“Have you not made a hedge around him and around his house”, is what satan said in Job 1:10. Satan stance here is clear. It is not hidden. Change Jobs’ circumstances, and watch all that you say about him to be a lie! Before we get there, let’s address what satan acknowledged, that God had put a “hedge” around Job. A hedge is a gate or a boundary that is placed around something valuable. The thing that is being hedged in, is being protected from anything on the outside that is harmful. God said Job is his servant, so let’s acknowledge that God keeps a hedge around those of us how are his servants. God’s hedge around you and your household cannot be penetrated.

Satan says something strange to God in regards to Job. He says to God “stretch out your hands and strike all that he has and he will surely curse you to your face”!

The text here is suggesting that satan is requesting God to strike upon Job the calamity that will cause him to curse God. But we see in the next verse that God lifts the hedge around Jobs possessions, allowing satan to do as he desires with them. 

Two things to notice here: God is not the one doing the striking; and 2: Satan must receive God’s permission before he can strike the things God has hedged in your life. He cannot attack you successfully, unless God has giving him access to do it. He must receive permission from God to strike you, or he must get you to move outside of the hedge that God has provided for you. How do you move outside of the hedge God has placed around your life? You must stop walking upright. If satan can get Job to stop walking upright before God, then Job opens himself up to be attacked by satan.

This sort of affliction is designed to get you on the outside of faith, because this is where sin lives. He must get you to sin, so you can reap the consequences of those actions. If he cannot get you to sin willingly, he will opt to provoke you to sin. He takes away Job’s possessions, attempting to provoke him to anger, and in his anger he is counting on him to sin against God. We are at our weakest when we are angry and frustrated. 

Most of the things we regret saying is when we are frustrated or in a fit of anger. Satan knows this. Because most people are not able to control their feelings, especially when they suffer great loss such as what Job has experienced. If you are a servant of God, I want you to know and understand that nothing can touch your life unless God has specifically allowed it inside of your hedge. It did not happen on a whim.

Everyone who attends Church is not a servant of God. There are many who attend, but do not serve. A servant serves. It is an active and deliberate thing. It requires lots of prayer. It requires lots of study. It requires lots of sacrifice. It requires lots of self denial. You cannot “have your cake and eat it too” when you are serving God. 

You must make a choice, and that choice comes with a cost. Either you lose “X” to gain Christ, or your gain “X” and lose Christ. Those who live by trying to hold onto both, pleases no one but themselves. We must not look at God as if he is grateful to have our affection; We must look at ourselves as the ones gaining to have God’s affection. Not that God doesn’t love our attention, he does. But do not take the possession that God is in the business of settling. This he is not!

He is long-suffering, but he requires our best when we can give it.

We see in Job that God protects those who walk in his ways. Satan cannot come against you. Job was untouchable before God removed the hedges, and when he did, it was satan who struck Job not God. God does not strike his servants. Even when God is strengthening their faith, it is not God’s hand who does the striking.

I must admit to you, that there are times I struggled to write to you words of faith. Me writing to you helps to strengthen my faith believe it or not. I do not always use my time and my days wisely. I put more on my plate, when I need to be taking things off. I constantly struggle in this area. At the moment I have no one to help balance me. This is something that I greatly dislike about myself. 

I constantly try to do too much, but at times I feel I do too little. I feel like I can’t win. Either I’m doing too much, too little, or too much of the wrong things, meaning not important, or too little of the meaningful things. Life has not gotten easier with age, it has gotten more complicated. What I am sure of is Christ, what I am not always sure of, is myself.

I’m working on being a good Husband. A good friend. A good Brother. A good neighbor. A good son. A good Teacher. A good worker. I feel like I fail most days then I succeed. I set out to do many things, but only accomplish few on that list. I pray that my abilities and my goals line up. A servant has a Master. A servant of God does not call the shots. The Lord is his Master.

Even when you have great wealth like Job did. Job’s wealth and resources did not protect him from satans onslaught against him. It was powerless against his attack. If you rely on them, then you are relying on powerless idols. Jobs strength and will was of no use to him when satan attacked his body. If you rely on your own might, then you are relying on a powerless idol. Pharaoh did this and perished quickly. Power does not come into the hands of anyone without God’s permission, so how would the power he allows be greater than him who is responsible for allowing it and distributing it?

Do not misinterpret God’s allowance of something, as God commends it. We already established that God does not strike his servants, so also don’t confuse God’s allowance as a God commending what takes place in your life that is evil. God will use evil, but God is not the creator of evil, and it does he’s heart no good to do evil to his children. So if God does not desire to do evil to his servants, then how do we grasp the evil that sometimes happens in our lives? Job was not foolish. He knew his good fortune came from God, and he knew his bad fortune came as a result of God allowing it. Job did no wrong to deserve it.

Many of you did nothing wrong to deserve the things that you experienced in your lives. If you are born into a group that is persecuted, you did nothing to deserve those experiences. If you were born with a disability, you did nothing to deserve that condition. If you experience a miscarriage while doing everything to ensure a healthy pregnancy, you did nothing to bring on that miscarriage. We experience things that we have no hand in. We did not deserve it. I know you beat yourself up about it. Because it’s easier to blame something or someone. Even if that someone is ourselves. At least it makes sense that way, sort of. Why would something bad just happen to me when I was doing anything bad to receive it. This is one of the biggest stumbling blocks in life.

What did I do to deserve this? God said Job did nothing wrong. God is saying to many of you, you did nothing wrong. I remove the hedge around that part of your life. What I allowed to come in, I intend to use in your life. God’s intent doesn’t always net the intended result in our life. We can look at the children of Israel as our cautionary tale. God did not intend for them to wander for 40yrs. 

They never matured spiritually to the point where they could cross over into the promise that God had delivered them from Egypt to receive. Many of us have been wandering for years. What God has allowed to come in, has not matured us spiritually to where he wants us to be. We have not yet matured to the point where we can proceed to the promise he has already established for us. But God continues to strive with us.

How long did Job suffer, the Bible does not say, but I know many of you reading this have suffered for years with what I do not know. Only God knows, and those close to you who you’ve opened up with knows. But there are some things that are only between us and God. God knows all of your suffering. Brothers and Sisters, I tell you at this moment that I have Joy, but I long for happiness. Joy is long-lasting in Christ, but happiness is forever fleeting. It comes and goes like the wind. Here one moment, gone the next. It is not a loyal emotion. I often find emotions to be more of a hindrance to holiness than a catalyst.

As Job sat, afflicted on all fronts, he was left with more questions than answers. And when we don’t have answers, we create them. I believe this is our solution to maintain our sanity. Questions we can’t answer when we are overwhelmed by circumstances leads us to more questions, which leads us to more questions, which eventually leads us to making things up in an attempt to answer the questions we don’t have the answers to. I’ve done it plenty of times. “It’s their fault!”. “It’s his fault!”. “It’s her fault!”. “It’s God’s fault!”. “It’s my fault!”. Sometimes it is our fault. But sometimes it’s nobody’s fault. Who do we blame in Jobs situation? Is it God’s fault or is if satan’s fault?

Job acknowledges several times throughout the book that it is God who has afflicted him. In the last chapter and verse of the book of Job 42:11, is reads “Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him“. So it is established that God was indeed the one who brought all these evil events upon Job’s life. That is not a misinterpretation or a misprint. God brings tragedy into the lives of his servants, and he uses satan to do so.

There are some things that can only be established in our character through suffering. Though we pray, and though we read, these two things alone will mature your faith and your character in all aspects of your life. You cannot learn to become a leader in a text book, nor can you learn compassion from taking a course. These things are only learned through experiences. And these experiences are painful.

I know what it is like to be lonely, because I have suffered loneliness for an extended amount of time. I understand the importance of humility, because I was prideful for an extended amount of time. I now understand the importance of relationships. They don’t run themselves. They take work and effort to keep them alive. Relationships don’t go on auto-pilot when you stop nurturing them, they die.

Many of us have parts of ourselves that we have let die. The hope of ever getting married or having a family can be an example. Maybe your first marriage was a disaster, and the hope of marrying again has died. Maybe you were optimistic at one point, but after years of disappointment you’ve let that part of you die. Maybe you were optimistic about reuniting with a loved one who you had a falling out with. A sibling or a child, or even a Parent or GrandParent, or a dear friend. You’ve prayed about it. Fasted over it. And still no change. 

The Desires Of Your Heart Will Come By Gods Hand Not Yours

I look to Abraham in this situation. Abraham’s greatest desire was to have a son with Sarah. It did not happen when he and Sarah were able. Abraham was greatly disappointed. You may say “the Bible doesn’t say Abraham was greatly disappointed”. This is when you need to use yourself as your best teacher.

What did you desire the most that did not come to pass? Did you say “oh well I guess it wasn’t meant for me to have!”; or did you grieve on the inside and on the outside?

Abraham’s desire was to have a son who could carry on his bloodline, and once he went past the age where it was possible to make a child, how do you think he felt? At that point, that desire now becomes a source of pain. That’s what happens to desires that are not fulfilled. They become rivers of pain that scars us. Abraham’s desire did not die, but the hope that he once had, had died. 

Father time took care of any lasting hope he had of having a son with Sarah. It did not die because Abraham did not have faith. It did not die because God did not consider Abraham his servant. It did not die because Abraham did not sacrifice and confess his sins. It died because he DID do all these things. And he grew old and passed the point of any chance of that desire coming to pass. How about when you do all these things and the situation does not change, do you still walk with God? Abraham did. Job did. Joseph did. David did. Moses did. But it did not mean these Men did not grieve.

Abraham’s desire did come to past.  And it came to past when Abraham and Sarah was completely incapable of doing it themselves.  Leaving no doubt that God orchestrated Isaac’s birth from start to finish!  The desires of your heart, will be done by God’s hand.  Not yours.

Never judge a person who has suffered great disappointment in their lives like Jobs’ friends did. It is arrogant and prideful. And if you haven’t suffered anything like that yet, you will. It’s coming. I guarantee it. You will be on the other side at some point. Whatever you go through, God let in. Nothing sneaks by him. Satan could not touch Job without God’s permission. He cannot touch you either without God’s permission. He’s not out there reckoning havoc on God’s children, while God is constantly trying to beat him back off us. God’s is never on the defense. He is always on the offense. He can’t be ambushed. We can. But he can’t. So we rely on him to be our eyes and are ears.

Like a General overseeing the battlefield of our lives. He knows where all the mines are.

God Uses Hardships To Develop Us

God uses hardships to develop us. There are areas in our lives where we need to be developed. He never gives up trying to develop us. He took the children of Israel 40 years in the wilderness, and they still did not develop. Some of us are still not developing in certain areas of our lives. God is not looking to permanently keep you in hardships, he’s trying to develop faith in this area or that area, and you cannot proceed until that work has been accomplished. If you are a person who lacks compassion, God cannot move you in certain places in your life until he has developed compassion in you. If you are prideful, God cannot move you into certain places in your life until he has broken you.

I know not what loneliness produces in a believer. I lie not. I do not know what isolation brings up in a believer. God himself said it is not good for us to be alone. I do not know the good that can come from loneliness.

I think being alone for sometime to study, and train has its benefits, but long term loneliness will lead to mental, physical, and spiritual breakdown for sure. There are times when God’s spirit will lead us to lonely places. God does his best work when we are left uninterrupted and distracted. But it is always for a time, never for an extended amount of time where spiritual, mental, and physical breakdown can occur. Servants of God are called to do God’s will. So being alone all the time is counterproductive. Who can we affect off and alone by ourselves?

I say once you have grown and mature, you need to test your faith. Testing faith is good. It will reveal your weaknesses. Hiding and being alone does not test nor improve character. In fact, satan would rather you be alone, less you show Christ to those you come in contact with! God uses hardships for our benefit. Satan uses hardships to knock us down. I can’t attest that all bad things that happen in our lives are from the enemy. But I can attest that all the trials that happen in our lives, is due to God removing his hedge in that particular area of our lives. Because God keeps a hedge of protection around his servants.

And even though God hedges his servants in, he still allows hardships and trials to enter and to shape us into the person he needs us to be. If you are a servant of God, I pray that you don’t fall away. I pray that the desires of your heart don’t die in Egypt. That it doesn’t die in your hardship. I know you don’t see any evidence whatsoever that God is doing anything on your behalf for what you’re believing him for the most. You’ve been faithful. You’ve been praying. You’ve been trying your best to move forward and persevere. It’s been hard. It’s been lonely. 

Even though you have a facebook account. You have an Instagram account. You have an iphone full of phone numbers and contacts. The worst type of loneliness is being lonely even in a room full of people. Being lonely when you have 2000 Facebook friends and 5000 Instagram followers. And everyone likes some post or comment you made. But you can’t even be the real you, so they are not seeing who you really are.

Servants of God are never seen for who they really are. David was just a shepherd boy. Joseph was just a young slave who talked too much. Moses was a murderer. Jesus was a carpenter. God raises up those who we least expect. That’s why we’re here. God looked at us and said this is something I can work with. I’ll take what Men reject, and build my Kingdom.

Remember our friend Job. God’s servant. When Job’s hardship came to an end, the Lord not only Blessed Job, but he Blessed Job’s friends as well. When you go through hardships, a lot of times God puts eyes on us. He not only blesses us, but he blesses those who are around us as well. Job’s friends were convinced Job had done something against God to cause all the suffering he was going through. But God showed Job’s friends that suffering and hardships is not always the result of sinful living. Those who sinned not sometimes suffer tremendous hardships as well.

If you are a servant of God and you are suffering hardship in this season, I pray that you will come out on the other side like a fine metal that is hardened and sharpened. Job says it best in Job 23:10: “But He knows the way I take; When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold”. Amen.

I hope you enjoyed this message today. I hope it has been a blessing in the life of one of God’s servants. If you’re in Christ then you are a servant. I pray that God develops you into the Man or Woman that he has called you to be, where he can bestow upon you the desires of your heart. As always, I love and praying the best for your lives!