You became a blueprint and fit into his perfect eternal design; you were endowed with everything you would need if you decided to enter your own story.
You also became part of a cosmic wager:
God released you from the potential of your story. He decided to wager that the power of his love for you could draw you back into choosing to enter your story, overcoming every attempt to lure you away if you but chose to embrace and stay put within that love.His wager is with the enemy of God. How do we know? Who says God wagers with anyone?
Job...was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion...God said to Satan, "Have you noticed my friend Job? There's no one quite like him--honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil."
Satan retorted, "So you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does--he can't lose! But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took everything that is his? He'd curse you right to your face, that's what."
God replied, "We'll see. Go ahead--do what you want with all that is his..."*Job had already embraced God's love that drew him into his own story. How was he to know that his very story was to take such an incomprehensible turn?
It appears God wrote Job's story to show us that the love of God trumps every other attempt to draw us away from our own story.Job held onto his story for dear life. So can we, one day at a time, in good times and when all hell has broken loose, both seemingly written into our own stories with the permission of God.
First we enter our story.
Then we hold on when it has incomprehensibly tragic chapters.
And we triumph in God's slow and agonizing time. What a peculiar story writer he is!
I want God to win his wager with that enemy when it comes to me entering into and staying put for the duration of my story.
One day I'll thank Job for his fortitude from which I drew strength.
I read recently that sometimes people watch what we do to see how it turns out before they embrace it for themselves.
If we wager on God, who wagers on us responding to his incredible love that wrote our story, they will have something powerful to see.
*Scripture: Job 1
Tomorrow: Managing our story.
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