When God Shakes You

The Book of Job starts as such, “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.” But in the last chapter, Job said, “...therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” What happened?

The godliest and most righteous people in the world are but like a clear glass of water with a sediment of sin hidden at the bottom. And until suffering stirred up the sediment and turned the glass cloudy, sins will never be exposed. Perhaps that’s the reason for Covid-19, with all the pain, suffering and challenges it's been bringing to our lives for the past few years.

This year, 2022, we are continuing with the Epistles of Paul into 2 Corinthians, and the overarching theme for this letter is “Strength in Weakness”. In 2 Cor 1:8-9, Paul said, “...we (apostles) were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead.”

God allowed his servant Paul to be brought at death’s door so that he can learn to rely not on himself but on God. At the bottom of Paul’s heart, as are the bottoms of our hearts, there is the sediment of sin, the sediment of self-sufficiency. We think we are strong. Then God has to shake our lives, to show us our weakness in self-sufficiency and cleanse us so that we grow into a deeper reliance on him.

What did the pandemic expose about you?

When God shakes you, what falls out?

As we journey together through 2 Corinthians, I pray that God’s call to you would become clearer. That God would pull our roots of joy from self-reliance and plant them into the glory of His grace. And together as a church, we may answer God’s calling in generosity to the needful people around us… not from a position of strength, but from weakness. Not from a position of wealth, but from poverty. A generosity that comes from an overflowing of joy from God Himself (2 Cor 8:1-2).

That’s His Strength in our Weaknesses. Let Him Shake.