Life is tough. Maybe it's divorce, job loss, a death in the family, a family strain or financial strain. Maybe it's a move or something else completely different that I haven't even come close to naming. Whatever it is there has been, will be or is a crisis in your life. (If you can't think of one then maybe roadblock is a better word for you then crisis.) So how do you praise God when life is so hard?
Well first let's look at a different question, do we have to praise God?
There are 38 times that something along the lines of "rejoice in the Lord" comes up in the Bible, here's a few.
Deuteronomy 12:12 "And there rejoice before your God- you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns who have no allotment or inheritance of their own."
1 Chronicles 16:10 says "Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice."
Psalm 32:11 "Rejoice in the Lord and be glad, you righteous; sing all you who are upright in heart!"
Isaiah 61:10 "I delight greatly in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of his righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a pries, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."
Habakkuk 3:18 "...yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my savior."
Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!"
Okay, so we know that we are encouraged and even commanded to rejoice in the Lord. Great. But life's tough and sometimes you just don't know how to rejoice, you don't want to rejoice and you feel like you're drowning so how in the world are you supposed to rejoice in the Lord when you feel like you're securely in the claws of the devil?
Well... let's talk about someone who we have proof was being tormented by the devil. You guessed it, come on down Job!
In the first chapter of Job the Bible tells us that the devil comes to present himself before God and God is talking about Job, how there is no one on earth like him. Of course the devil's response is (and I'm paraphrasing here) "Of course he serves you, his life's practically perfect!"
So God gives the devil permission to take everything away from Job but does not allow the devil to harm Job personally.
Now before we get too far let me point something out. Was God being mean? Why did he let the devil mess with Job? Recently I read something about this- and although I can't remember who said it I want you to notice something. God put limitations on what the devil could do. He actually protected Job! Yes, he allowed him to be tested but he still protected his servant.
And no, God doesn't always physically protect us, later in the book Job was physically assaulted too although he was spared from death.
Okay, moving on, the second part of Job 1:20 says, "Then he fell to the ground in worship..."
Hold on, Job just lost his kids, his livestock, basically all his wealth but then he falls to the ground in worship? How does that work?
It's actually not as complicated as you might think. Job was human, just like you and me, so how did he worship after everything he'd just been through?
HE CHOSE TO!
Did you get that? Let me repeat it.
Job chose to worship. He was grieving, this wasn't a happy, with a smile on his face and arms lifted to the heavens as he danced in the aisles, kind of worship. Job was in a world of emotional pain but he still chose to worship. In fact his next words are truly incredible.
vs. 21 "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."
How many of us have that first reaction? Because trust me, it's not normally the first words out of my mouth. But maybe it should be because look at the next verse.
vs. 22 "In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing."
Wouldn't you like God to say that about you? That when a crisis came you didn't sin? I wouldn't and it all starts with a choice.
So how do your praise God when life gets tough? The same way you do when life is great. You choose to.
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