Job 2013

By Melissa Page

The year 2013 was my year of Job. In the Bible, Job was a very wealthy man with a large family who loved God. For reasons Job did not understand, he lost his family, wealth, businesses, and then health--quickly and violently. For about nine months, he was lost to grief and despaired even of life. But God. But God.

I was lost and broken in chronic pain and addiction. But God stepped into my life and brought restoration, just like He did to Job. The Lord restored to Job twice what he had lost, and he lived to see many generations of his sons and grandchildren enjoy a good life because of what God gave back to him. The same God is still at work today! In 2013, I lost my amazing forty-acre farm in the Virginia mountains, my marriage, my health, my horses, and the ability to walk. At about 310 pounds, I stopped looking at the scale. Everyone, everyone I knew gave up on me. I was advised to apply for disability. I despaired of life and had a great plan to end mine. I didn't believe I would ever walk again, ever be able to work again. But God.

This is the story of how a modern-day Job rose from the ashes. The Lord delivered me from overwhelming emotional, mental, and physical addictions that were rooted in dark brokenness. I was so depressed and had been for so long that I believed survival was impossible without drugs. I am not talking about street drugs: heroin, cocaine, and meth. Under the care of medical professionals, taking prescription drugs as prescribed, I became a total addict. They could see the brokenness, but not fix it.

You can't really understand addiction until you wrestle with it. It is easy to look at someone going through it and think it is a character flaw or bad habit. It is much more powerful than that. It takes you over and consumes you. It happens on a spiritual level that science can't reach.

If you are engulfed in addiction, brokenness, depression, and suicide today, please read my story. There is no reason for me to be alive and thriving today. But God. He reached down and picked me up from the middle of my disastrous life. He washed me clean. He set me free from all of it. He still can. He still does. But God!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Aug 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9798887511917

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Job 2013

Melissa Page

ISBN 979-8-88751-190-0 (paperback)

ISBN 979-8-88751-191-7 (digital)

Copyright © 2023 by Melissa Page

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Preface

But God

Lazarus

As a Child

Addiction

The Lightning

The Dumpster

Alaska

What Really Happened

Greater Glory Worship Center

The Ring

The Wings

What He Sees

Born Again

Do You Know

About the Author

Preface

Some people who think they know me say that I am negative. In actuality, I fight negativism and hopelessness with every breath while awake, and sometimes in my sleep (if I sleep). I crave hope and encouragement. I search high and low for it every day. This is after knowing life as a Phoenix; having been given a second chance after my life burned down to nothing but ash. A living Lazarus who God raised up from the dead and whose life was restored. Me, a modern Lazarus, who should be dead. Having lost everything, and then seeing the Lord restore it all piece by piece, how can I of all people still struggle to find hope?

Hopelessness is still what I fight. The seeming reality I can't shake off. But God. He has plans for me. He has hope for me. He has a future for me. I know that in a blink of an eye, everything can change. I have had the privilege to live through this. I testify of this.

So if there is anyone out there, any soul who aches to hear this today: God can! God still does! God will if you just ask! If there is anyone who has been molested or raped and lived through it only to despise your own thoughts, hate your own sexual response. Anyone who is trapped in a job you detest, crying to and from work every day while you die inside because you have no hope of anything else and no clue what else you can do. Anyone who is stuck in a dead marriage to an alcoholic you can't trust because you know they love the buzz more than you. Anyone who lies in bed hour after hour trying to think up any kind of reason why you should get up and put one foot in front of the other again. Anyone hopelessly obese, more than 150 pounds overweight and unable to exercise or diet, unable to do anything besides eat because that is the only thing that you can enjoy. Anyone who takes that little something, whether it be a pill or a drink, just so you can feel something like pleasure just for a second, no matter what the cost. Anyone who is addicted to pornography or masturbation, craving that release only to be followed by overwhelming guilt and shame, only to do it over and over without being able to stop. Anyone who has had everyone they care about walk away or just give up on you because you seem to have made nothing but bad decisions and ruined your life. Anyone who is having to live with family members who despise them because you are so sick you have no other choice and have no voice in your own life. Anyone who is so lonely they have sold their self-worth for the attention of monsters. Anyone who has spent all of their money on doctors and medicine with zero to show for it except addiction and more debt.

I am here to tell you, hold on. In the blink of an eye, everything can change. The past does not matter. God's grace is bigger. God washes clean and makes new. Creates life. God's word is nuclear. One word from Him can change everything. Even if you don't have the faith. Even if you don't have the money or resources or the answers or a plan. It doesn't matter what you have or don't have, what you did, or where you are stuck today, God still can. Hold on. I am living proof. Hold on.

But God

I sat on the bed in my sister's spare upstairs room. It was