Job 1:20,21: “Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, ‘Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’”
It is easy to worship God when things are going well.  We have no problem praising the Lord when the paychecks are steady, the bills are paid, the refrigerator is full, and our bodies are healthy. But, when life throws a curveball at us, worshipping the Lord becomes a little harder. Our natural response is to question God, and ask Him why all these bad things are happening to us, and unfortunately many times we become so preoccupied with what is going on in our life that we neglect to worship God. Sadly we become conditional worshippers. We may not audibly say it, but the message we send to God is that we will worship Him as long as everything is going well, but as soon as life doesn’t go the way we planned, our worship becomes conditional.
In Job, we find the well-known story of a man named Job. The Bible says that Job was blameless and upright, and that he was the greatest of all the people of the east. Satan is given permission to test Job, and in chapter one we read the account of Job losing everything. All of his donkeys (500), camels (3,000) and oxen (500) were taken by force, all of his sheep were consumed with fire (7,000), all but four of his servants were murdered, and all of his children were killed when the wind blew the four corners right out of their house. Job lost everything! In verse 20 we are told that Job’s response was one of worship. In the midst of losing everything, when he could have grown bitter, angry, or resentful towards God, we find Job falling down on his face and worshipping God saying, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.” What in the world could possibly have driven Job to worship at a time like this?  Why wasn’t he angry with God? Why didn’t he begin to question God?
Job understood a fundamental truth that we all would do well to remember when life isn’t going the way we wish it would. Job knew that the nature, character and worthiness of God was not dependent upon his circumstances.  He knew that regardless of what was happening in his life, God was still God, and God still deserved to be worshipped, after all, He alone is worthy of worship.  Job could have allowed his circumstances to cloud his view of who God was but he didn’t.  He chose to focus on what he knew to be true about God—that whatever life may bring, God still deserved to be praised. And his response was “Blessed be the name of the LORD!”
We are all living in the same, fallen, sinful world. Things don’t always go the way we think they should. But we must remember, that no matter what is going on in our life, God is still the same. He has promised to never change, and He is still worthy of our worship.  Don’t let the circumstances of your life place conditions on your worship. No matter what is going on today, take some time to stop and worship our great God!  Blessed be his name!

Pastor Kevin Reed
Grace Evangelical Free Church
4714 13 Mile Road, Rockford