Most Important Thing

Good health. Now there's something people often take for granted. Anyone who has suffered ill health knows there is no greater blessing than to actually get a good night's sleep or to be able to do everyday tasks without pain. You don't miss it until it's gone.   

One question: If good health is the most important thing God has done for you, would losing it be the worst thing He could do to you? If you thank God for the good things, what are you going to do when things get bad?   

That's what happened to Job. He was a wealthy man with a great family. Then a horrible sequence of events took it all away -- and he was struck with a disease that covered his body with oozing boils. He's sitting in the ashes, scraping his sores with a piece of broken pottery.   

How much worse could it get?   

His wife's advice was right to the point: "Curse God and die." But Job understood a deeper truth. His reply: "Shall we accept good from God and not accept adversity?" (Job 2.7-10)   

What would you do? Could you still believe He loves you and wants only the best for you? Would you be angry with God for letting you get sick?   

That's exactly what most people do: They blame God for the bad things that happen to them.   

But God sees things differently. The truth is, God "causes ALL things to work together for good" in the lives of His children (Romans 8:28). His Word even tells us to be happy when life gets hard, because those difficulties make us "perfect and complete" (James 1:2).   

Is that hard to understand? Good is good, and bad is good too? In God's way of looking at things, the "bad" things that happen to us can actually be good -- if we let God use them to pull us closer to Him and to make us more like Jesus.   

Does that seem backwards to you? It certainly goes against the way our world thinks. In fact, the Word says it's impossible for someone to accept the "foolishness" of God's ways if they haven't ever experienced the radical change of being reborn into His kingdom (1 Corinthians 2:14-15).   

Enjoy your good health while it lasts, because it won't last forever. And seek God now. Better to understand God's ways and have Him walk with you through the hard times, than to go through life angry with the Creator of the universe because things didn't go like you wanted.