Try to picture this with me.  A woman gets a knock on her door.  When she gets to the door she looks outside and sees a big group of people standing on her porch.  There are cameramen, photographers, boom microphones, all of her neighbors and a very nicely dressed, handsome man at the front of the large crowd.  Right behind him someone is holding what looks like a regular bank check on steroids.  On the sum line it says “Ten Million Dollars.”  The lady opens the door and a man introduces himself as Ned McTan and he informs her that she just one a sweepstakes of ten million dollars.  The woman starts screaming and saying, “Thank God. I can’t believe this.  Thank God.”

That is not too hard to imagine.  Matter of fact, that is how most people would respond, that is, if they did not pass out first.  Now try to imagine this.  A woman hears a knock on her door.  When she gets to the door she sees a police officer standing there.  She nervously opens the door and he begins to tell her that he has some very bad news.  He tells her that he is there to evict her from her home.  Out of the corner of her eye she sees a tow truck pulling her car down the street.  She chases the tow truck to find out what is going on and on the way through her yard she falls and breaks her leg and knocks herself unconscious.  She wakes up in the hospital and slowly remembers the scene that unfolded in front of her.  She remembers losing her house and her car and then she begins to feel a throb both in her leg and head.  She starts smiling real big and with joy in her voice says, “Thank you Jesus.  God you are so awesome.”

That scenario is a little more difficult to realistically imagine.  It sounds more like a scene from a bad comedy show.  Why is it that we can easily imagine someone thanking God when they win ten million dollars but not when things go drastically wrong in their lives?  We do not think twice to accept the blessings in our life as if they are from God, but at the first sign of trouble we are ready to curse God and die.  We ask God, “Why, have you allowed this to happen to me?” The real question is why do you need to ask God why?  If He was to pour out blessings on you would not ask why.  We would simply accept it for what it was.  We would just say, “Well if God wants to bless me, who am I to stop Him?”

Job handled it better than any of us ever could.  His wife said to him in Job 2:9, “Dost thou still hold fast thine integrity? Renounce God, and die.”  But Job was not giving in to that mentality.  Job replied in verse 10, “Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?”

What an attitude.  If we are going to accept the blessings of God, we also have to accept the bad that comes into our life with the same attitude.  The Bible says that in all this Job did not sin with his lips.  I wonder what God can say of our words.  Can he say, “In all this, Chad did not sin with his lips.”  Or have I chosen to accept the blessings of God, but then blame God for the bad things in my life.  Our prayer should be, “God, help me to accept the good with the bad.  Help me to be grateful in both the blessing and the curses.  Give me the kind of faith that stands strong regardless of life’s lot.”  Make it a priority to give God thanks in all things in your life.