We had a dear Christian sister several years
ago who struggled with the thought that she could not come to understand the
“what for” of God’s working in her life.
Job really struggled with this, didn’t he? As he put it, he would go forward but didn’t
see God there. He looked backward but
could not perceive. Something happened
on his left or his right and Job could not see the point.
But what did Job know? He knew that God knew his (Job’s) path, even
if Job did not understand God’s path.
Job also knew that he was not going to reject God as a result of his
trial. He knew his trial was a test and
when it was over he would be more refined, a purer gold, than when he went into
the test. He was sorely frustrated, but
he was not going to allow the frustration to overcome him.
We are blessed with information Job didn’t
have. We know about God’s conversations
with Satan (Job 1-2) and we know the end of the story, of God’s rebuke of Job
(Job 38-42). What we know is that Job
was longing to know something that was only known to God. And we know that in the end, God rebuked Job
for his lack of faith and yet rewarded him for his righteousness.
What an important thought for us. Faith
does not know everything. Faith does not have factual, visible
evidence. Instead, faith IS factual, invisible evidence. Faith
IS the evidence of things not seen (Heb.
11:1). Our walk of faith does not
require that God show us the end from the beginning. It requires that we remember: The secret things belong to the LORD our
God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children
forever, that we may do all the words of this law. We would say this is not abandonment to God in the sense that we are left with nothing but
trusting Him. Rather it is faithfulness,
it is security, it is assurance to trust Him with the things unseen. In this way, after He has tested us, we will
come forth as gold.
No comments:
Post a Comment