Job 23:10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
Job begins by affirming his confidence that God sees him in his pain: “He knows the way that I take.” It is not an uncommon experience for believers to lose their sense of God’s presence during the darkest moments of life. We wonder where God is when we are walking through the pain of divorce, or the crushing burden of having our friends turn on us, or the heartbreak of watching a loved one die. Even the Lord Jesus cried out from the Cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34).
It’s not wrong to feel that way and you have not sinned just because you have lost the sense of God’s presence. Job said, “I’ve got a case to present to the Lord if only I could find him. I’ve looked high and low for God but I can’t find him anywhere. I’ve searched in every direction but he is nowhere to be found.” Then he rose to a higher level of faith and declared, “I can’t see him but it doesn’t matter because I know he sees me.”
You may say that it was all Satan’s doing, but that’s not the whole truth. It was God who brought up Job’s name in the first place when he said, “Have you considered my servant Job?” (Job 1:8). And it was God who set the limits on how far Satan could go in tormenting Job. That’s why Job keeps saying, “I want to talk to God face to face about all this.” Satan may have started it, but God set the rules of the game.
What is God trying to do when he allows his children to go through hard trials and deep suffering? There are several answers to that question. First, God is trying to purge us of sin and to purify us of iniquity. Second, God uses suffering to test our faith. Will you still obey God in the darkness? Will you serve God when things aren’t going your way? Will you hold on to the truth when you feel like giving up? Third, God uses times of difficulty to humble us. When things are going well, we tend to get puffed up about our accomplishments. But let the darkness fall and we are on our knees crying out to God. Fourth, God definitely uses hard times to prepare us to minister to others. He comforts us so that we may comfort others. I know many Christians whose greatest ministry has come from sharing with others how God helped them through a time of crisis. Fifth, I believe God uses hard times to prepare us for a new understanding of his character. In the darkness we discover God’s goodness in a way we had never experienced it before.
“I will come forth as gold.” Looking back from our position, we may not see how great a statement of faith this really is. Job has lost everything-his property, his prosperity, his position in the community, his children, and his health. His wife turned against him when she encouraged him to curse God and die. Here is this man sitting on an ash heap, scraping his sores with pieces of broken pottery. He is a broken and ruined man. Yet in the midst of his pain he declares, “I will come forth as gold.”
How can this be? He saw something his three friends didn’t see. He understood with the eyes of faith that what God was doing had a purpose. All these terrible things were not meant to destroy him, but in the end to improve him.
We may wonder how tragedy can improve a person. I read a little bit from the book of Puritan prayers. I found the statement that our trials are sent by God for our spiritual improvement. For some reason that struck me with great force. When God wants to improve a person spiritually, he puts him through great trials.
Job compared it to the process of refining gold. Even though this took place thousands of years ago, the basic process has hardly changed at all. You take raw chunks of gold ore-pieces of stone flecked with tiny bits of gold-and put them in a hot furnace. The heat causes the stone and dirt to melt and rise to the surface where they are skimmed off so that the only thing left is pure gold. It obviously takes a great amount of heat to do that, but it’s worth it because in the end you have pure gold, unmixed with any impurities.
Something like that is at work in your own life through the trials you endure. The hotter the fire, the more the pain but the quicker the gold comes forth. In the end you will be both approved and improved by God. Your trials are not wasted nor are they random acts of fate.
What should you do when you find yourself in the furnace?
1. Seek a quiet heart.
2. Listen for God’s voice.
3. Look of God’s fingerprints.
4. Stay faithful to God no matter what.
Above all, don’t take matters into your own hands. That only makes things worse.
When we hurt, we really have only two choices –
* we can hurt with God, or
* we can hurt without him.
If you are hurting today, you may feel as if you have come to the end of your endurance. I pray that you will hang on to the Lord. If you turn away from him, things can only get worse.
You may summarize your spiritual condition this way: “I can’t read. I can’t think. I can’t pray. But I can trust.”
There will be times when we can’t read the Bible. Sometimes we won’t be able to focus our thoughts on God at all. Often we will not even be able to pray. But in those moments when we can’t do anything else, we can still trust in the loving purposes of our God.
Fear not, child of God. No one knows what a day may bring. Who knows if we will all make it through this week? But our God is faithful to keep every one of his promises. Nothing can happen to us except it first pass through the hands of a loving God. If your way is dark, keep on believing. When your dark time is over, you will come forth as gold.
It’s not wrong to feel that way and you have not sinned just because you have lost the sense of God’s presence. Job said, “I’ve got a case to present to the Lord if only I could find him. I’ve looked high and low for God but I can’t find him anywhere. I’ve searched in every direction but he is nowhere to be found.” Then he rose to a higher level of faith and declared, “I can’t see him but it doesn’t matter because I know he sees me.”
You may say that it was all Satan’s doing, but that’s not the whole truth. It was God who brought up Job’s name in the first place when he said, “Have you considered my servant Job?” (Job 1:8). And it was God who set the limits on how far Satan could go in tormenting Job. That’s why Job keeps saying, “I want to talk to God face to face about all this.” Satan may have started it, but God set the rules of the game.
What is God trying to do when he allows his children to go through hard trials and deep suffering? There are several answers to that question. First, God is trying to purge us of sin and to purify us of iniquity. Second, God uses suffering to test our faith. Will you still obey God in the darkness? Will you serve God when things aren’t going your way? Will you hold on to the truth when you feel like giving up? Third, God uses times of difficulty to humble us. When things are going well, we tend to get puffed up about our accomplishments. But let the darkness fall and we are on our knees crying out to God. Fourth, God definitely uses hard times to prepare us to minister to others. He comforts us so that we may comfort others. I know many Christians whose greatest ministry has come from sharing with others how God helped them through a time of crisis. Fifth, I believe God uses hard times to prepare us for a new understanding of his character. In the darkness we discover God’s goodness in a way we had never experienced it before.
“I will come forth as gold.” Looking back from our position, we may not see how great a statement of faith this really is. Job has lost everything-his property, his prosperity, his position in the community, his children, and his health. His wife turned against him when she encouraged him to curse God and die. Here is this man sitting on an ash heap, scraping his sores with pieces of broken pottery. He is a broken and ruined man. Yet in the midst of his pain he declares, “I will come forth as gold.”
How can this be? He saw something his three friends didn’t see. He understood with the eyes of faith that what God was doing had a purpose. All these terrible things were not meant to destroy him, but in the end to improve him.
We may wonder how tragedy can improve a person. I read a little bit from the book of Puritan prayers. I found the statement that our trials are sent by God for our spiritual improvement. For some reason that struck me with great force. When God wants to improve a person spiritually, he puts him through great trials.
Job compared it to the process of refining gold. Even though this took place thousands of years ago, the basic process has hardly changed at all. You take raw chunks of gold ore-pieces of stone flecked with tiny bits of gold-and put them in a hot furnace. The heat causes the stone and dirt to melt and rise to the surface where they are skimmed off so that the only thing left is pure gold. It obviously takes a great amount of heat to do that, but it’s worth it because in the end you have pure gold, unmixed with any impurities.
Something like that is at work in your own life through the trials you endure. The hotter the fire, the more the pain but the quicker the gold comes forth. In the end you will be both approved and improved by God. Your trials are not wasted nor are they random acts of fate.
What should you do when you find yourself in the furnace?
1. Seek a quiet heart.
2. Listen for God’s voice.
3. Look of God’s fingerprints.
4. Stay faithful to God no matter what.
Above all, don’t take matters into your own hands. That only makes things worse.
When we hurt, we really have only two choices –
* we can hurt with God, or
* we can hurt without him.
If you are hurting today, you may feel as if you have come to the end of your endurance. I pray that you will hang on to the Lord. If you turn away from him, things can only get worse.
You may summarize your spiritual condition this way: “I can’t read. I can’t think. I can’t pray. But I can trust.”
There will be times when we can’t read the Bible. Sometimes we won’t be able to focus our thoughts on God at all. Often we will not even be able to pray. But in those moments when we can’t do anything else, we can still trust in the loving purposes of our God.
Fear not, child of God. No one knows what a day may bring. Who knows if we will all make it through this week? But our God is faithful to keep every one of his promises. Nothing can happen to us except it first pass through the hands of a loving God. If your way is dark, keep on believing. When your dark time is over, you will come forth as gold.
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