TRUSTING GOD WITH THE UNEXPLAINABLE

We are often guilty of trying to second guess God. And when others are going through difficulties we are often tempted to act as if we know how to explain the plans of an infinitely wise God. But the truth is that our minds wrestle in vain to explain the unexplainable. When we’re unable to solve the mysteries that confront us, we can allow unanswered questions to rob us of our joy. It may be a tragedy that threw you into depression. Or it may be that you have experienced hurt from a relationship. Whatever it may be it can cause us to doubt the power or goodness of God.

Job was a man who worshipped God and did all the right things, but he was tempted to doubt God’s goodness. In spite of his goodness Job still underwent adversity. In one single day he lost everything, including his children. Then when you think nothing further can happen to poor Job, he breaks out with skin ulcers all over his body, and his health is destroyed. Friends came to comfort him, but they added to his misery by insisting he must have committed some horrible sin for which God was punishing him.

WHAT DO WE LEARN FROM JOB’S EXPERIENCE?

• You don’t know exactly how another human being feels.

What someone needs is a genuine friend who will walk with him or her on their spiritual journey - someone who encourages their faith without trying to explain the unexplainable.

• You are always in the care of a loving God.

Nothing happens in the life of the believer that has not first passed through the permission of God.

• Experiences you can’t understand provide the greatest opportunities to exercise faith.

Though Job continued to have faith in God he never learned why God permitted him to suffer. Sometimes there are no apparent or easy answers to life’s problems. Through suffering, we are forced to face the mystery of God. We’re challenged to trust Him deeper. Job did come to know God better.

• Faith is proven to be genuine only when it is tested.

The Bible reminds us that a faith that passes the test is more precious than gold.
1 Peter 1:7 These have come so that your faith - of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

• God has multiplied blessings in store for you.

God blessed Job abundantly.
Job 42:12-13 The LORD blessed the latter part of Job's life more than the first. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters.

You may not get every single one of God’s blessings in this life, as Job did, but they are there for you. They are reserved in heaven, waiting there for you.

The Job who emerged from the severity of pain had a deeper trust in God than the Job who entered it. That’s what God wants to have happen in each of us when we, too, face the hurts that are a part of every human life.