Job 22-24

Acts 11

“For He will be like a refiner’s fire or a launderer’s soap. He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver...and refine them like gold and silver.”   —Malachi 3:2-3

One of the things that God does—which some may argue is one of the best things God does—is bring us under pressure, because then, we begin to understand what our hearts are really like. For Job, when he was met with trial, although he worshipped, he also fell into a deep depression.

        Job’s three friends tried to help him understand his calamity. Even though Job was a righteous man, his friends believed he must have done some secret sin that caused such tragedy to befall him. Job’s friends kept urging him to confess his sins and ask God to restore him. Yet Job retorted, “If I have sinned, what have I done to You, You who see everything we do? Why have You made me Your target? Have I become a burden to You? Why do You not pardon my offences and forgive my sins? For I shall soon lie down in the dust; You will search for me, but I shall be no more” (Job 7:20-21). Job could not think of a secret sin that he committed.

        Some of us may resonate with Job’s situation. We may feel that some hidden sin, unknown to us, has caused the current predicaments in our life. We may have confessed our sins a million times but find that nothing has changed. But that may not be the problem at all! The reality is that Job was not attacked by Satan because of his unrighteousness; on the contrary, it was because of Job’s righteousness that he was attacked.

        How did Job manage to survive all this? Job 23:8-10 reveals Job’s attitude and understanding of God: “But if I go to the east, He is not there; if I go to the west, I do not find Him. When He is at work in the north, I do not see Him; when He turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him. But He knows the way that I take; when He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold.” Job points in all directions but does not find God. Job’s security, however, is his confidence that God knows where he is and the path he will take, no matter the circumstance. Job’s belief when he was tested was that he would “come forth as gold.” Likewise, when we are placed in difficult situations that we do not understand, may we remember that God is not breaking us, but is making us, and though we may not always see where or how He is working, He is refining us as gold.

PRAYER: Sovereign God, I pray that as I face difficult circumstances in my life and when I do not understand why things are happening the way they are, may I remember that You are not breaking me but making me. Thank You, Lord.