As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life bitter … - Job 27:2

Today’s Scripture Reading (June 16, 2018): Job 27

I think that it is a common prayer. “God, if you are really there, then …” Life is filled with trials, and often those trials are the beginning of our loss of faith. “God, why would you allow this to happen.” I believe that the prayer is born out of a misunderstanding. If we could see everything, if we could truly understand, then maybe things could be different. But we can’t, or don’t, and we begin to question the very existence of God.

What is important to note here is that while Job is moving through his trial, he has not doubted the existence of God. “As surely as God lives …” There is no doubt in that statement. God lives. From the point of view of Job, this God who lives has denied him justice and has made his life bitter, but there is no doubt that God was really there. What Job does not do is cry out to God, “if you are really there, then change this about my life.” God, if you are really there then heal me. God, if you are really there then change my economic situation. Get me a job. There is no question that Job is in distress, his life is bitter, a fact that is magnified by his friends, but he understands that God is really there.

We all face trials and moments when we are tempted to question the reality of God. We all misunderstand God’s role in our lives. But true faith, the faith of Job, begins with our crying out in fear and pain, “God my life is bitter, and yet I know you are there.”

Charles Spurgeon preached a sermon he entitled “A Vexed Soul Comforted.” In the sermon, he made this comment.

Child of God, are you vexed and embittered in soul? Then, bravely accept the trial as coming from your Father, and say, ‘The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?’ ‘Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?’ Press on through the cloud which now lowers directly in your pathway; it may be with you as it was with the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, ‘they feared as they entered the cloud,’ yet in the cloud they saw their Master’s glory, and they found it good to be there. (Charles Spurgeon)

What was true of the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration was also true of Job. In the moment of his fear and discouragement, he was about to walk out into the glory of God. Job was about to declare that even the cloud of his trial was a good place to be.

Sometimes, the only places where we get to experience the glory of God is in the midst of our trials and our fears. It would have been a tragedy for the disciples to have given up before entering the cloud that terrified him. And it would have been a tragedy for Job to have totally given up his sure knowledge that God lives before he witnessed the Glory of God. Sometimes, glory exists just on the others side of the cloud that you are walking through right now. Don’t give up on God because of your trials. I know that he has not given up on you.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 28