Title: When The Wicked Prosper
Bible Book: Jeremiah 12
Author: Johnny L. Sanders
Subject: God, The Ways of
Objective:
INTRODUCTION
She was one of the most beautiful little girls I have ever seen. I had known her parents most of my life and I had known her almost from birth. They had moved to Memphis and I had gone to seminary in New Orleans, so I had not seen her in sometime when I heard that she had been burned severely when a little boy pulled a burning newspaper out of a burn barrel and caught her dress on fire. Her face was scarred for life, unless plastic surgery someday might help. Her father flew in from New York where he was working temporarily and the first thing I heard from him was his frustrated cry, “What has she ever done for God to do that to her?” That was his version of
a key question from the Book of Job, as well as Jeremiah’s agonizing question. Why do the wicked often prosper when the righteous often suffer? I have hard that question asked in one form or another many, many times, under various circumstances, by people of various states of spiritual maturity.
A number of years ago a deacon asked me to read the book, Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. The author of that book concluded that bad things happen to good people because God, though He is God, cannot do everything. The deacon asked me to read the book and make notes in the margin when I found theological problems with the author. I had notes all through the book when I returned it. He took it out and burned it.
Job and Jeremiah both asked that question and God answers it. At first, you may not find His answer very satisfying. Stay with it. His answer is amazing!
I. FIRST, LET’S LOOK BACK TO JOB’S COMPLAINT.
A. First, Let’s Recall the Circumstances.
1) Job was a godly, righteous man, whose faith in the Lord ran deep. He actively worshiped the Lord, offered sacrifices for himself and his family, served the Lord and lived for Him. I well remember preparing for the January Bible Study the years Southern Baptist churches were studying the Book of Job. I was a very young man, and even though I had graduated from Mississippi College (where one of my majors was Bible) and New Orleans Baptist Theological seminary, I still struggled to get a handle on the Book of Job. When I began to understand the construction of the book it began to come together. I taught it several time and each time I taught it I was even more convinced that Job was a righteous man at the beginning, in spite of the fact that the man who had written the book for the study insisted that in the beginning Job was lost, and that his declaration of faith at the end shows that through the process of all the suffering, humiliation, and the seemingly endless debates with his “comforters”, he came to trust God in the end. Of course a lot of people have turned to the Lord during a crisis, which He used to get their attention. The author of the book had a lot of pastors teaching this obvious error.
The inspired Scripture identifies Job as a believer: “He was a man of perfect integrity, who feared God and turned away from evil” (Job 1:1). He lived a life of complete integrity, and he turned from evil because he held an attitude of holy reverence for God.
2) The Lord called Job His servant, Job 1:8. Since this was possibly the earliest book written in the Bible, some may debate issues and terminology, but it seems very clear to me that God considered Job a believer or He would not have called him His servant (He is not using the title as He used it of a pagan king He used to accomplish His purpose).
3) Satan challenged God for Job. In essence, Satan proposed that they make Job a battlefield in his relentless war against God. Now, in the first place, there would have been no satanic challenge without Satan. My professor for the study of the Book of Revelation in seminary admitted that he didn’t believe in a personal devil. He had his friends on the faculty and they influenced a few students, but far more stayed with the Scripture. These are the ones who became warriors in the Battle for the Bible. They had seen liberalism up close and personal.
4) Now, let’s look at the Scripture (HCSB).
“One day the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord asked Satan, “Where have you come from?”
“From roaming through the earth,” Satan answered Him, “and walking around on it.”
Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered My servant Job? No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil.”
Satan answered the Lord, “Does Job fear God for nothing? Haven’t You placed a hedge around him, his household, and everything he owns? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions are spread out in the land. But stretch out Your hand and strike everything he owns, and he will surely curse You to Your face” (1:9-11)
“Very well,” the Lord told Satan, “everything he owns is in your power. However, you must not lay a hand on Job [himself] .” So Satan went out from the Lord’s presence” (Job 1:6-12).
5) God permitted Satan to put Job to the test. Consider two things here. First, there is the directive will of God. In Jeremiah, God declares, “I will” repeatedly, as he revealed His plans. In Amos, He says, “I will send fire on the walls” of this city or that city. Repeatedly, He warned Israel: You have turned from Me. Therefore, I am going to send a power from the north to judge you.
Next, there is the permissive will of God. This is one of the earliest examples, and one of the best. God did not strike down Job’s children and destroy his wealth. God did not strike Job with putrid, horrifying sores. But He permitted Satan to do it. Everything that happens either happens according to the directive will of God of the permissive will of God. It cannot happen apart from the opportunity God has given, the framework within which even bad things may, and often do happen to people the world identifies good people.
Satan challenged God for the right to put Job’s faith to the test in order to prove that he could make him curse God. God permitted Job’s faith to be subjected to a test that makes the suffering of Job proverbial even after some than 4,000 years. You know the story. Satan destroyed his family and his wealth. His wife counseled him to curse God and die, but Job was determined to maintain his integrity before God. Then God gave Satan the opportunity to strike Job physically to see if he would pass the test. Few people have ever been subjected to the kind of satanic attack leveled against Job. Yet, he remained faithful and in the end God blessed him with more than he had at the beginning.
B. Now, Let’s Look at Job’s Response to His Trials.
1) He maintained his integrity:
“Then Job stood up, tore his robe and shaved his head. He fell to the ground and worshiped, saying: Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will leave this life. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Praise the name of the Lord. Throughout all this Job did not sin or blame God for anything” (Job 1:20-22).
2) Job refused to blame God:
“His wife said to him, “Do you still retain your integrity? Curse God and die!”
“You speak as a foolish woman speaks,” he told her. “Should we accept only good from God and not adversity?” Throughout all this Job did not sin in what he said (Job 2:9-10).
3) This does mean that Job never struggled with his faith:
“After this Job began to speak and cursed the day he was born. He said: May the day I was born perish, and the night when they said, “A boy is conceived” (Job 3:1-3).
C. Now, Let’s See the Wisdom of the World in Dealing With These Circumstances.
1) Job’s friends came to comfort and stayed to condemn. Elephaz confidently declared:
“Should anyone try to speak with you when you are exhausted? Yet who can keep from speaking? Look! You have instructed many and have strengthened weak hands. Your words have steadied the one who was stumbling, and braced the knees that were buckling. But now that this has happened to you, you have become exhausted. It strikes you, and you are dismayed” (Job 4:1-5)..
“Isn’t your piety your confidence, and the integrity of your life your hope? Consider: who has perished when he was innocent? Where have the honest been destroyed? In my experience, those who plow injustice and those who sow trouble reap the same. They perish at a [single] blast from God and come to an end by the breath of His nostrils” (Job 4:2-9).
That is not all, Pharisaic Eliphaz assures Job he is certified to make these statements: “We have investigated this, and it is true! Hear it and understand [it] for yourself” (Job 5:27). He is saying, “I have a degree in this stuff, Buddy! Bildad and Zophar were in the same counseling class. You had better listen to us.”
2) Bildad calls Job a wind-bag. He not only took that class in counseling with Eliphaz, he went back for graduate work!
“How long will you go on saying these things? Your words are a blast of wind. Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right? Since your children sinned against Him, He gave them over to their rebellion. But if you earnestly seek God and ask the Almighty for mercy, if you are pure and upright, then He will move even now on your behalf and restore the home where your righteousness dwells” (Job 8:2-6).
3) Listen to the arrogant Dr. Zophar:
“Should this stream of words go unanswered and such a talker be acquitted? Should your babbling put others to silence, so that you can keep on ridiculing with no one to humiliate you? You have said, “My teaching is sound, and I am pure in Your sight.”
“But if only God would speak and declare His case against you, He would show you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides. Know then that God has chosen to overlook some of your sin. Can you fathom the depths of God or discover the limits of the Almighty?” (Job 11:2-7).
Here is a word of warning: When you speak for God, be sure you speak from the Word of God! When you demand that God speak you may get your request. When you demand, “Where is God?, you may just find out where He is.
D. Job’s Response in Enlightening.
1) He denied that his suffering was caused by sin.
2) He would not yield to the pressure of his wife to curse God and die.
3) He cried out in despair, but never turned from the Lord.
“If only my request would be granted and God would provide what I hope for: that He would decide to crush me, to unleash His power and cut me off! It would still bring me comfort, and I would leap for joy in unrelenting pain that I have not denied the words of the Holy One” (Job 6:8-10).
4) Job cried out for a Mediator.
“For He is not a man like me, that I can answer Him, that we can take each other to court. There is no one to judge between us, to lay his hand on both of us. Let Him take His rod away from me so His terror will no longer frighten me. Then I would speak and not fear Him. But that is not the case; I am on my own” (Job 9:32-35).
We have a Judge in Jesus Christ, the only Mediarator, the only Intercessor between God and man. Job had never seen a copy of Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, or the Gospels. How could he know about
about the One Who would stand between God and man and reach out both arms to draw the two together - which is exactly what Jesus was doing on the Cross, and exactly what He is doing today as he stands at the right hand of the Father interceding for our sins.
D. God Won the Test and Satan Lost.
We will come back to Job after a while. In the mean time, please place a mental bookmark here so you will remember three things. First, there is Zophar’s desire for God to speak. He will. Second, there is Job’s desire for a Go-Between. There is. Third, there is the desire for an answer to why the righteous may suffer while the wicked prosper in this world. There is.
II. NEXT, WE WILL LOOK AT JEREMIAH’S COMPLAINT.
A. We Know the Circumstances.
God had chosen Israel over all the nations of the world for His Covenant People. He had delivered them from Egypt, entered a covenant with them at Sinai, protected them in the wilderness, and blessed them miraculously during the Conquest of Canaan. He had honored the Covenant in spite of the fact that His Chosen People continually and habitually rebelled against Him. He called it perpetual backsliding. Jeremiah’s Judah was as guilty as their ancestors. Even more so, according to the Lord. In fact, He declared that treacherous Judah was worse than unfaithful Israel (the Northern Kingdom).
“Therefore, I will bring a case against you again. This is the Lord’s declaration.... I will bring a case against your children’s children. Cross over to Cyprus and take a look. Send [someone] to Kedar and consider carefully; see if there has ever been anything like this: Has a nation [ever] exchanged its gods? (but they were not gods!) Yet My people have exchanged their Glory for useless idols” (9-11).
“Be horrified at this, heavens; be shocked and utterly appalled. This is the Lord’s declaration. For My people have committed a double evil: They have abandoned Me, the fountain of living water, and dug cisterns for themselves, cracked cisterns that cannot hold water” (Jer 2:9-13).
B. Jeremiah Suffered Personally.
Job was attacked by Satan when God withdrew His protection and permitted His servant’s faith to be tested. Jeremiah was attacked by his kinsmen. Job’s suffering was compounded by three friends who came to comfort and stayed to torment. When they failed, young Elihu took over and gave the three comforters a tongue-lashing for failing to convince Job. He condemned Job for refusing to repent.
Jeremiah’s own kinsmen sought to kill him, and it seems that his own family were co-conspirators. They wanted to silence Jeremiah for delivering the word of the Lord. Other prophets lied to the people. The priests polluted worship and refused to listen to Jeremiah. They wanted him silenced, whatever it took.
C. His Complaints are Recorded.
“You will be righteous, Lord, even if I bring a case against You. Yet, I wish to contend with You: Why does the way of the wicked prosper? [Why] do the treacherous live at ease? You planted them, and they have taken root. They have grown and produced fruit. You are ever on their lips, but far from their conscience” (Jer. 12:1-2).
Jeremiah has another question:
“How long will the land mourn and the grass of every field wither? Because of the evil of its residents, animals and birds have been swept away, for [the people] have said, “He cannot see what our end will be” (Jer 12:4).
III. NOW, WE WILL LOOK AT VARIOUS VERSION OF THE SAME QUESTION.
A. Every Society and Culture Has Asked This Question.
1) The Pharisees of Jesus Day had not progressed beyond Job and Jeremiah.
The Pharisees connected blessings with righteousness and suffering with unrighteousness. If you were healthy, wealthy, and wise you were righteous and God was rewarding you for your good works. If you lacked health, wealth, friends, social position, and all the other things one often associates with wealth, you were being deprived because of your unrighteousness.
2) Even Jesus’ own disciples has been influenced by the Pharisees.
“And as he passed by, he saw a man blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Rabbi, who sinned, this man, or his parents, that he should be born blind? Jesus answered, Neither did this man sin, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him. We must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. When I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (John 9:1-5, ASV).
Does this verse not teach exactly what the Pharisees believed? Does it not support Job’s friends? Let me share a translation of this passage from one of my seminary professors.
“Jesus answered, (it is not that) this man has sinned, nor his parents (Period). But (new sentence) that the works of God should be made manifest in him, (comma) we must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work. When I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
3) No doubt, this complaint has been raised in every culture.
The Bible speaks of famines, floods, droughts, diseases, and pestilence. If the people through the ages had not continued to complain about their circumstances, the Pharisees would not have developed a whole system of theology around the question. When disaster hits, people want to know, “Where is God?”
B. America Asks the Question After a Major Disaster.
1) It was asked after the Galveston Flood which killed six to ten thousands.
2) It was asked after the “Tupelo Storm” which made the Guinnes Book of World Records. It was one of the most deadly tornadoes in history. My grandfather drove into Tupelo, Mississippi immediately after the tornado hit and 40 years later a thunderstorm made him extremely nervous.
3) It was asked after the ‘twenty-seven flood”. I grew up in the Mississippi Delta town of Sledge, when older residents still spoke of the “twenty-seven flood”. The entire Mississippi Delta was flooded. Water stood four feet deep in Sledge, twenty miles from the Mississippi River. When I moved to Forest, Louisiana in 1978, older people told me about the “twenty-seven flood”. Only Macon Ridge was out of the water, all the way from the hills of Vicksburg to Red Hill in Bastrop. I have driven from Bastrop to Vicksburg many, many time and I can assure you that is a long way!
There is the story of the man who survived the “twenty-seven flood” and until the day he died he stopped everyone who would listened and told them about how he moved his family and livestock to the Macon Ridge. They slept in is wagon. The man died and went to heaven, and everywhere he went he stopped everyone and asked, “Can I tell you about the “twenty-seven flood”? Finally, he stopped one man and ask to tell him his experience in the “twenty-seven flood”. The man said, “Of course I will listen to your experience in the “twenty-seven flood”, but first, I would like to introduce myself. My name is Noah.”
4) It was asked after Pearl Harbor, the date that wold live in infamy.
5) It was asked after Nine-eleven, the other date that should live in infamy.
6) It was asked after all the Florida Hurricanes. I turned north in Greenville, SC, and headed toward Ashville, NC, on my way to Ridgecrest for the September, 2004 meeting of the LifeWay Christian Resources board of trustees. I was surprised when I began seeing signs warning of a mud slide on I-40. Then, as I approached Ashville, there were other signs announcing water distribution centers. I could hardly believe a “Florida” hurricane had done so much damage in North Carolina.
7) It was asked after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. A few days after Katrina hit, I received an e-mail message from a friend in Texas: “Johnny, are you still there?”
I spoke with my friend, Fred Luter, pastor of Franklin Avenue Baptist Church in New Orleans, at the retirement banquet for Dr. Jimmy Draper. He and I are the two trustees on the board from Louisiana, and while we were high and dry all the way through the hurricane, Fred was one of the thousands who have had to deal with the disaster. His wife Elizabeth told me they had eight feet of water in their house and the church.
I spoke with Dr. Chuck Kelly, president of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, at the same banquet. I can tell you this much: Fred Luter and Chuck Kelly have lived through an ordeal beyond anything I can imagine, but they have not given up, and they will never give up. Dr. Kelly was excited when he told me of plans to begin on-campus classes very soon. When disaster hit, he moved the headquarters to the Atlanta campus site and all students were able to complete their work. Fred Luter and Chuck Kelly kept their eyes on the Lord, and though their losses were significant, they were not shouting angry charges at God. They were not demanding, “Where is God?”
C. Americans Ask the Question After Local Disasters.
1) Disasters in Colonial America raised the Question.
2) Catastrophe that stalked the pioneers raised the question.
3) The Civil War brought countless stories of suffering to many Americans.
4) A soldier is killed in war. We ask, “Where is God?”
5) My father and my father-in law were both orphans. Where was God?
6) The abuse of a child brings the question to mind
7) Loss of health, wealth, family, or loved one raises the question.
IV. GOD’S ANSWER MAY SURPRISE YOU.
A. He answered Job.
“Will the one who contends with the Almighty correct Him? Let him who argues with God give an answer. Then Job answered the Lord: I am so insignificant. How can I answer You? I place my hand over my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not reply; twice, but [now] I can add nothing. Then the Lord answered Job from the whirlwind: Get ready to answer Me like a man; When I question you, you will inform Me. Would you really challenge My justice? Would you declare Me guilty to justify yourself?” (Job 40:1-8).
Modern psychology tells us it is natural for you to be angry with God when things are not going well. They even tell us it is healthy for us to accuse God of not caring, or of being powerless to do anything about the situation. There are those who will have you believe if is healthy to shout, “Where is God?” It is certainly understandable that a lost person would respond to trials in this manner. It is even understandable that the backslider, the wilderness believer who is walking in the flesh rather than in the spirit, would so respond. However, if you know the Lord, if you are really walking with him in Light and Truth, every time you begin to question God, remember these words of God. When you demand to hear from God, remember what happens when God speaks.
Look again:
“Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you. He eats grass like an ox. Look at the strength of his loins and the power in the muscles of his belly. He stiffens his tail like a cedar tree; the tendons of his thighs are woven firmly together. His bones are bronze tubes; his limbs are like iron rods. He is the foremost of God’s works; [only] his Maker can draw the sword against him(Job 40:15-22).
Though the river rages, Behemoth is unafraid; he remains confident, even if the Jordan surges up to his mouth. Can anyone capture him while he looks on, pierce his nose with snares?” (Job 40:15-24).
“Can you pull in Leviathan with a hook or tie his tongue down with a rope?” (Job 41:1).
Traditionally, Bible students have told us that the Behemoth was the hippopotamus and the Leviathan is the crocodile. Dr. Henry Morris has made a strong case for two species of dinosaur. Can you imagine a hippopotamus with a tail like one of the cedars of Lebanon? If you think you could catch a crocodile with a fish hook, how would you like to try to land a giant dinosaur? The Lord goes on to deal with the water cycle and constellations, he finally addresses Job’s friends:
“After the Lord had finished speaking to Job, He said to Eliphaz the Temanite: “I am angry with you and your two friends, for you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has. Now take seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. Then My servant Job will pray for you. I will surely accept his [prayer] and not deal with you as your folly deserves. For you have not spoken the truth about Me, as My servant Job has.” Then Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job’s [prayer]” (Job 42:7-9).
B. The Lord Answered Jeremiah.
If we had not read God’s response to Job, this might come as a surprise to us. He said:
“If you have raced with runners and they have worn you out, how can you compete with horses? If you stumble in a peaceful land, what will you do in the thickets of the Jordan?” (Jer. 12:5).
Before you challenge God, stop and consider the One you are questioning. When you ask, “Where is God?”, remember that He is God and you are not. When you ask why He lets the ungodly commit evil acts against His faithful children, remember that He is the one who loved them enough to give His son to die for them. Would you do that?
“Many shepherds have destroyed My vineyard; they have trampled My plot of land. They have turned My desirable plot into a desolate wasteland. They have made it a desolation. It mourns, desolate, before Me. All the land is desolate, but no one takes it to heart” (Jer. 12:10-11).
“They have sown wheat but harvested thorns. They have exhausted themselves but have no profit. Be put to shame by your harvests because of the Lord’s burning anger” (Jer. 12:13).
“This is what the Lord says: “Concerning all My evil neighbors who attack the inheritance that I bequeathed to My people, Israel, I am about to uproot them from their land, and I will uproot the house of Judah from among them. After I have uprooted them, I will once again have compassion on them and return each one to his inheritance and to his land. If they will diligently learn the ways of My people —to swear by My name, ‘As the Lord lives,’ just as they taught My people to swear by Baal—they will be built up among My people. However, if they will not obey, then I will uproot and destroy that nation.” This is the Lord’s declaration” (Jer 12:14-17, HCSB).
God is in control. Several years ago, I was sitting in the sauna at my health club, visiting with a friendly, courteous black man about the Lord. I learned a long time ago that when a godly African-American who really loves the Lord and knows His Word speak, listen, you are about to learn something. This Baptist deacon, speaking of the providence of God, said, “He’s sittin’ high and lookin’ low.” I thought when he said it how often I had tried to find words to express just that thought.
C. God Answers You and Me.
1) He may be demanding, “Who do you think you are to question Me?” That is the essence of what he demanded of Job, wasn’t it? Whenever you pray, don’t ever forget which one of you is God and which one of you is the created one.
2) I have a conclusion I would like to share with you. In the first place, we would have to be blind or living a very reclusive life not to have observed that evil people often live long, healthy lives and prosper all the days if their lives, and godly people often suffer when we have no explanation for it.
How do you explain that? I believe I have an answer that. That answer came to me after a little experience with a computer. I learned that certain software was more user-friendly than other programs. Then, one day it hit me: The world is user friendly to those who are of the world. Satan, the prince of this world will always dangle a carrot in front of those who are looking for it. He will wave drugs, alcohol, or immorality in front on a person to try to enslave them and eventually destroy them. Some, however escape the broken life so often associated with a sinful life. That person attracts others to a life of sin, just like the news that someone has won millions of dollars in the lottery will draw millions of people to gambling. Call it gambling instead of gambling and Satan may be able to help you recruit professing Christians!
4) Now, look back to Job. After 4000 years, who is benefitting more from Job’s trials, Satan or God? Every generation needs to understand Job and apply the lessons he learned. Every individual needs to understand the trials of Job, either because he has faced trials, he will face them, or someone he loves has, or will face them.
CONCLUSION
I am note speaking of this in a vacuum. I am sure many of us can share experience from which we will all benefit. I remember graduating from Mississippi College with almost no debt, and what I had I paid off that summer. I had the best job with the USDA a student could find at the time. However, when I began seminary I resigned the student pastorate and moved to New Orleans Seminary. I was a farm boy and farm boys had all the work they could do on the farm. I had only worked for someone else one summer, doing construction work immediately after high school. The next year I began working with the ASCS in Marks, MS. I did not want to do secular work when I started to seminary. I naively enrolled in seminary, thinking a church would soon call me. Before long I was out of money and I dropped out of school after three terms. Friends from the Lula Baptist Church gave me money to finish the year. I finished the second year, but stayed out of school one year after that. Living expenses were taking up my salary, including my meager salary as a mission pastor. The Lord blessed me with a wonderful wife who taught my final year in seminary. Little did I realize that I would go back to school later. I am not going to deal with the automobile engines that blew up on me when I was down to my last few dollars, or to the bills that came due before I was ready for them. The Lord blessed me.
Let me fast forward. I had moved to a strong church in Texas and things were looking up for us. Becky took off three years when John was born and again when Mark was born. Mark was less than a year old when we moved to Texas. I developed a foot problem and my secretary offered to call their foot specialist. By the time two foot specialists finished with me, they almost totaled me out, and if it had not been for the grace of God, I don’t know how I would have fed my family. The Lord provided a way. I sat on a barstool to preach for 25 years before the Lord gave me the strength to stand to preach. I made hospital calls in a wheel chair, my sons often pushing the chair.
I have made bad business decisions and paid the price for those bad decisions. I learned from them - believe me, I learned from them! I know there are a lot of people out there who are hurting because of financial problems and they won’t talk about them because they are afraid people will accuse them of something dishonest or just plain stupid. Some businesses go under when the super stores come to town. I know a little about that. Some go under because of employee or because they are scammed or cheated. I know about that, too.
I went to the gym before my sixtieth birthday and set the weight on the bench press machine at 160 pounds and pressed it 6 or 8 times before moving it to 200, then 250, and 300. I got up and then went back and pressed 350 and 360. I set a goal of 400 pounds for my sixtieth birthday. Ten days later, I had a really big heart attack and my limit on my next birthday was a little more than 10 pounds. A lot of people were amazed with the way I handled the heart attack, surgery, rehab, and recovery. I simply trusted the Lord - “ready to go, ready to stay...” I thought then I would never let small things thrown me again. I was wrong! I never believed I would experience normal anxieties after that. Little did I know.
Did I accuse God of being unfair? NO. Did I ask God why this happened to me instead of some ungodly person? NO. Did I ask, “Why me instead of some evil person? NO. Why? Am I stronger than Job or Jeremiah? NO! Absolutely not! Why? I know my Lord and I trust Him. It is as simple as that. I trust Him and I urge you to trust Him. Lost person, you can know Him to save you right now. Christians friend, you can trust Him to bless you. Right now.
