God in Our Troubles

And [Job] took for himself a potsherd with which to scrape himself while he sat in the midst of the ashes. Job 2:8

Job’s story is universally known. He endured a series of catastrophes in his personal life until he ended up sitting, alone, on an ash heap scraping his boils with a scrap of pottery. How can it come to that? The truth is, we don’t have to go through Job’s dreadful experiences (Job 1–2) to feel we have landed in a similar place: afflicted and alone.

If we are going to identify with the beginning of Job’s story, we must also identify with the middle and the end. Throughout his quest to understand God’s reasons for his afflictions, Job never lost confidence in God. And in the end his spiritual eyes were opened to see God in a way he had never seen Him before: sovereign, omnipotent, and gracious. Job’s life was restored; he was wiser and deeper than he otherwise would have been. Trouble did in Job’s life what it will do in our life if we will give God the benefit of the doubt. If we will but believe that God is with us and working out His perfect will, we will never doubt His presence in spite of our circumstances.

Don’t let circumstances determine how you see God. Conform your circumstances to God, not God to your circumstances.

Shall light troubles make you forget weighty mercies? John Favel