11-20-2014

Good Morning All,

         Job 19:25-26; “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth.   And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God”

     Confidence; that is what the “little engine that could” had; it had confidence.  As it climbed the mountain, it confidence grew until it knew that it could climb the mountain.  Confidence; that is what Babe Ruth had.  In Game 3 of the 1932 World Series, Babe Ruth pointed out to centerfield and then hit the next pitch over the centerfield wall.  Confidence; that is what Michael Jordan had as he played professional basketball.  Many times, while shooting a foul shot, he would say to the opponent who fouled him, “watch this”.  He would close his eyes and, usually, make the free throw without looking.  Confidence is an amazing thing.

    When many people think of Job, they describe him as being patient,  perhaps you have heard or even used the phrase “the patience of Job” to describe dealing with a tough or a perplexing problem.  Yet patience does not exist by itself; it needs a stronger counterpart to make patience work.  In order for patience to work you must have faith.  It is only by faith that we can have patience.  Faith gives us the strength and the courage to face the battles that we face.  Even if these battles seem insurmountable, we can be patient because we have faith that, in the end, we will succeed.  We will be victorious.

     It was faith that gave Job the courage to be patient.  It was faith that let him see past the horrific events of his life and to see his Savior.  Job had complete confidence that he would see his Redeemer, standing on the earth and the Job would see him in Job’s only flesh.  Job knew that his Redeemer would live and that he, Job, would live to see it, even after he was long dead.  So no matter what happened, Job had faith that God would give to Job the victory; so Job was patient because Job was confident.

    We can have that same confidence that Job had.  That confidence can give us patience because we know, in time, that our Redeemer (Jesus) will stand on the earth and we will see him in our flesh no matter how long it takes.  This simple fact is what gives us all of our hope, all of our confidence, all of our patience and all of our peace.  We know that Jesus lives.  The grave could not hold him; death could not defeat him.  So now the victory is ours.  No matter the pain, no matter the battle, no matter the sorrow, the victory is ours and we know that Jesus lives and because he lives we will live also.  Confidence; it is what you and I should have when facing this life.  Confidence; that we will overcome whatever obstacles there are and move forward to eternal life with Jesus.

Father in heaven, give us the confidence to rely only on your grace and mercy for the needs of this life.  Help us to hold onto your loving arms that we might be strengthened.  Be with those who are feeling the full weight of life’s many struggles.  Send them your Spirit of comfort and peace that they may say, “I know that my Redeemer lives.”  In the precious name of Jesus, our living redeemer, we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret