Crises (8): Maladie et séparation

Job… dit: Nu je suis sorti du sein de ma mère, et nu j'y retournerai; l'Éternel a donné, et l'Éternel a pris; que le nom de l'Éternel soit béni! Job 1. 20, 21

– L'exemple (Job 3): Job était un croyant intègre qui respectait Dieu. Sur le plan matériel, il était très riche; mais, en quelques jours, il perd tout: une maison s'écroule sur ses enfants, et divers malheurs détruisent tous ses biens. Est-ce tout? Non, une maladie de peau le fait souffrir sans répit.

Quelle crise spirituelle pour Job! Tout au long du récit, nous l'entendons crier à Dieu sa détresse, ses doutes, ses questions… Mais, peu à peu, la lumière se fait dans son esprit. Sa foi est affinée, sa connaissance de Dieu se précise. Il s'écrie: “Mon oreille avait entendu parler de toi, maintenant mon œil t'a vu” (Job 42. 5).

– La leçon: Les pertes successives qui l'accablent sont immenses… Elles nous laissent pensifs, mais la leçon spirituelle apprise est très riche. Et elle est double: d'une part Job est délivré de ses raisonnements négatifs, d'autre part il fait confiance à Dieu et lui rend honneur en s'écriant: “Je sais que tu peux tout” (Job 42. 2).

Que dire devant de telles pertes et devant un tel progrès spirituel? La mise à l'épreuve de la foi de Job a produit la patience, et celle-ci a accompli en lui “son œuvre parfaite” (Jacques 1. 4).

Si nous vivons des moments difficiles et des séparations douloureuses, ne nous décourageons pas! Comme Job, continuons à parler au Seigneur, disons-lui même notre amertume. À la fin, nous verrons que “le Seigneur est plein de compassion et miséricordieux” (Jacques 5. 11).


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You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people. Ephesians 2:19

Hope means the most to those who have lived without it.

A young African refugee who goes by the name of Steven is a man without a country. He thinks he may have been born in Mozambique or Zimbabwe. But he never knew his father and lost his mother. She fled civil war, traveling country to country as a street vendor. Without ID and unable to prove his place of birth, Steven walked into a British police station, asking to be arrested. Jail seemed better to Steven than trying to exist on the streets without the rights and benefits of citizenship.

The plight of living without a country was on Paul’s mind as he wrote his letter to the Ephesians. His non-Jewish readers knew what it was like to live as aliens and outsiders (2:12). Only since finding life and hope in Christ (1:13) had they discovered what it meant to belong to the kingdom of heaven (Matt. 5:3). In Jesus, they learned what it means to be known and cared for by the Father He came to reveal (Matt. 6:31–33).

 
You are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people. Ephesians 2:19

Paul realized, however, that as the past fades from view, a short memory can cause us to forget that, while hope is the new norm, despair was the old reality.

May our God help us to live in security—to know each day the belonging that we have as members of His family is by faith in Jesus Christ and to understand the rights and benefits of having our home in Him.

Lord, as we remember how hopeless we were before You found us, please help us not to forget those who are still on the street.