Devotions by Christine Caine

Read Job 13:23; 17:15; 19:7

Job cries out to God asking why he has been left to suffer the loss of all he cares about. He wonders what he has done to deserve such misfortune.

Losing Everything

The biblical book of Job tells us the story of a man of great wealth who, in a terrifying series of events, loses everything—his children, his money, even his health. Sitting in the dust, surrounded by men who have come to help him probe why such things have happened to him, Job lamented his losses and asked the great existential questions: How many wrongs and sins have I committed? What has been my offense and my sin? Where is my hope? Is there any hope for me?

Job’s friends spoke up, offering him the world’s wisdom, which was no help at all. Finally God spoke—but even he did not answer Job’s questions. Instead, he merely said that he was God, the great I AM, all powerful and all-knowing, and that Job had no reason or right to question him. Job humbly repented—and God chose to restore all that Job had lost, and more.

In the entire story, God never does find it necessary to explain himself. We will never understand, this side of heaven, why bad things happen to us and those we love. Nor will we understand so many unexplainable tragedies in this world, from war to famine to earthquakes. But this doesn’t mean that we should stop trusting God, who has proven again and again that he loves us.

We, his creation, have no right to tell God how to express that love. We can know, for sure, that his choices will not be our choices. That is why faith says, along with Job, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him” (Job 13:15).

Is God unfair? Unjust? No—in fact, our very definitions of justice derive from God. Is he silent? He may choose not to speak to us directly—the psalmist often speaks of God’s silence. And yet he has given us his Word, full of his messages to us, messages of love and reassurance. Is he hidden? “Those who seek me find me,” he says in Proverbs 8:17.

Remember this: While there is breath in your lungs, there is hope—the promise of a new day. The psalmist reminds us: “Weeping may endure for a night but joy comes in the morning” (Ps. 30:5 nkjv).

Point to Ponder

God is faithful to redeem each and every disappointment you suffer in life. Are you ready to hand him your broken dreams and let him bring good from them?