The Process of Working it Out

“I am the Lord your God.  I am holding your hand, so don’t be afraid.  I am here to help you.”  (Isaiah 41:13 CEV)

My Bible study the past few days has taken me to the book of Job.  I have to confess, this book has always been difficult for me.  It’s hard for me to wrap my mind around how a blameless man of integrity that feared and stayed away from evil (Job 1:1 NLT), could be subjected to such terrible difficulties.  The grief and the physical pain would be bad enough, but then he had so-called friends that came “to comfort and console him.”  (Job 2:11 NLT)  As I read the things those friends said to him I thought about that saying  – “With friends like these, who needs enemies?”  Seriously!         

Much, if not all, of what they say is accurate, even Job acknowledges it at times – but it’s so self-righteous and condemning toward a man enduring so much suffering!  You can read in Job’s responses that he is understandably depressed and defensive and does a lot of complaining as he suffers from self-pity.  He even calls them out for their insensitivity – “‘One should be kind to a fainting friend, but you accuse me without any fear of the Almighty.’”  It just seems to me to be heartless and inappropriate under the circumstances – circumstances they just don’t seem to be in tune with.     

Let’s just say I had a friend that had a house fire.  Everything she owned including all her vehicles were destroyed.  Her children and several pets were trapped inside and died.  She’s suffering emotionally with those losses.  Then because she has sustained terrible burns over most of her body and has lung issues as a result of smoke inhalation – she’s also suffering physically.  So, I take a couple of mutual friends and we go to visit her and proceed to tell her that her children perished because they were living sinful lives.  Then we’ll talk about how although she’s done a lot of good things for a lot of people in the past, something just has to be off because bad things don’t happen to innocent people.  Wouldn’t that be heartless and inappropriate?

As I was thinking about all of this, I reread something the commentary in my Bible at the beginning of today’s study had to say.  “Suffering…is not always based on personal sin….Job fails to understand that his righteousness is based on God’s approval and that God’s approval does not always mean a life without suffering.”

Then my daily devotional for today came in behind that, starting off with the verse from Isaiah that I have at the top of this page.  Chris Tiegreen (the author of my devotional book) shared today a specific Word that he received from God and I want to share it with you:  

“‘Notice in My Word how every crisis is an opportunity for people to experience Me and learn more of who I am.  Your difficult situations set the stage for moments of revelation.  I reveal who I am in the midst of your need for Me.  You would never know Me as Healer, Deliverer, or Provider if you never needed healing, deliverance, or provision.  And because your need to know Me is greater than your need to be immune from the challenges, I will allow you to be put in challenging situations.

Still, My words to you are, ‘Don’t be afraid.  I am here to help you.’…I want the very best for you, and I’m in the process of working it out.’”

Reality is – we’d like to think that when we live good, Christian lives, doing our best to be as Job was – blameless, full of integrity and staying away from evil – that we won’t have to suffer any problems.  But, that in fact isn’t reality.

“Many hardships and perplexing circumstances confront the righteous, But the Lord rescues him from them all.”  (Psalm 34:19 AMP)

“For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!”  (2 Cor. 4:17 NLT)

And let us never forget the suffering of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who was without sin.  He went through it all, taking our sins upon Himself, with no complaints and no accusations.  The result of His sufferings allows us to be saved into eternity with God – forever.

We need to remember that regardless of what we face and why we’re facing it, God is there to help us and He’s in the process of working it out.  We need to keep our eyes on the reward.

Written by Karran Martin – January 21, 2025  

[Bold emphasis is mine]