Job 30:21-22

21 Thou art become [haphak] cruel ['akzar] to me: with thy strong [`otsem] hand [yad] thou opposest [satam] thyself against me.

22 Thou liftest me up [nasa'] to the wind [ruwach]; thou causest me to ride [rakab] upon it, and dissolvest [muwg] my substance [tuwshiyah] [shavah]. KJV-Interlinear

21 'Thou hast become cruel to me; With the might of Thy hand Thou dost persecute me. 22 'Thou dost lift me up to the wind and cause me to ride; And Thou dost dissolve me in a storm. NASB

How much control do we have over our lives? None, when it comes to the day-to-day activities in this life.

In chapter ten, Job recognized that it is God who put his life together. And now here, it is God who takes ones life apart, piece by piece, bit by bit.

God can approach our lives in blessing or in cursing. We are all subject to judgment, discipline, testing, or blessing.

Judgment is one of the worse possible relationships that you can have with God. Discipline, if something bad is to happen in your life, is the preferred relationship. Discipline is correctional and intended to get you back on track where you have wavered off of the path of life which God prefers you to follow.

Testing, is an enhancement of your spiritual life. Testing is intended to accelerate your spiritual life.

And of course blessing is preferred by all.

But in these verses, Job sets out the contrast in Gods policy towards humanity. It is God who controls history, not man. It is God who directs the flow of history, not man. Everything in your life was foreseen by God in eternity past and likewise He made provision for every aspect of your life.

You do not have the privilege of setting down in your life and doing nothing. God has set out mandates for you, in order to teach you responsibility, and to see if you really learn.

In everything, we study, we review, and apply to life, the principles we learn. Often time's people learn the wrong things. They learn shortcuts, or indifference, and try to improve on Gods plan for their life. Those approaches always fail.

Many times, you may have certain objectives for your life, and then something beyond your control occurs, which cancels out your plans and substitutes something else. Perhaps something you never intended, or would not do on your own. As they say, there are your plans, and then there is life.

Life is the revelation to you, of Gods plan for your life. When you study and grow up spiritually, then there will be a compatibility between Gods plan and your thoughts and actions. When you are negative toward God, then you will sooner or later, face these verses.

The winds and storms of life will toss you about like dust. And especially when you think you have some semblance of control over your life, you will be caught by surprise.

Job was not a bad person. Job was a spiritually mature person. Yet his life was turned upside down in order to provide us all, instruction and an opportunity to learn for ourselves.

We can learn the easy way, by study and instruction. Or we can learn the hard way, by life's experiences.

Regardless of your learning approach to life, you will always come face to face with suffering experiences. Hopefully it will be for the purpose of reinforcing your already established faith.

Jobs faith was strong. He has known great prosperity and happiness, and now faces great suffering and loss, yet he never criticizes nor blames God.

Your life rests in Gods hands completely. Better to be under His blessing policy designed to teach you and help you grow up through study and experience, than to be under His cursing policy, designed to hammer your entrenched arrogance and stubbornness toward change.

This is the devils world for now. Until the end of history, we will just have to endure what the world throws at us. In doctrine that will be easy. With spiritual deficiency that will be difficult.

Now is the time to post a prayer.