Is God Against Me?
When I lost my sight in 2015, to say that it felt as though life was crumbling around me would be an understatement.
In the blink of an eye, my collegiate equestrian career, my senior year of college, my health, and life as I knew it disappeared.
In the days, weeks, and months that followed, I faced one hard situation after another as I learned to live again in darkness.
It definitely felt like everything was falling apart, and I struggled to understand Where God was and what he was doing through it all.
Do you ever have those days when you feel as though everything is falling apart?
One of those days or weeks when every little thing seems to go wrong.
Your kid is sick, your car won’t start, your workload is tremendous.
Or sometimes it is much more serious.
Your health is deteriorating one painful diagnosis at a time.
You are out of work and the bills are piling up.
In these moments, do you ever find yourself wondering the same question as I did when I lost my sight…
Dark clouds with white text that says, "Where are you, God, and what are you doing?"
Where are you, God, and what are you doing?
In his sermon one Sunday, my pastor, Lee Wimberly at North Point Baptist Church, gave a simple answer to this question when he said, “When it feels as though everything is falling apart, God is up to something.”
In the book of Job, we can read about a life that definitely seemed to be falling apart.
Job was a wealthy, righteous, Godly man, but he lost his children, possessions, and his health in the blink of an eye.
Job, as we are when we face trials, was blind to what God was doing behind the scenes.
In Job chapter 3, Job admitted the feeling of just wanting a way out of the pain and suffering that he was facing.
“After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. And Job said: ‘Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’ Let that day be darkness! May God above not seek it, nor light shine upon it.’”
(Job 3:1-4, ESV)
Job was not only cursing his suffering but his entire existence. In his mind, there was no way out of his troubles other than avoiding them altogether by never being born.
It seems as though he was so miserable that no life at all would have been better than the life he was currently enduring.
Are you facing a hardship today that makes you feel an overwhelming sense of regret, avoidance, and lamenting?
When we feel as though God is not making a move to deliver us through or from our trials, it is easy for us to succumb to wishing them away entirely.
There is the notion that when we face hardships it is because God is punishing us or working against us.
“If I sin, what do I do to you, you watcher of mankind? Why have you made me your mark? Why have I become a burden to you?”
(Job 7:20, ESV)
Job could not understand what he had done to deserve such suffering and pain and why God wouldn’t just cut him a break.
It is easy for us to feel as though we are being punished when we face hardships.
Trust me, I have been there too.
A sunny, blue sky with text that says, “God is up to something bigger and greater than we could even imagine."
However, if we rewind back to the beginning of the book of Job, we can see that when it feels as though God is working against us and everything is falling apart, God is up to something bigger and greater than we could even imagine.
“The Lord said to Satan, ‘From where have you come?’ Satan answered the Lord and said, ‘From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.’ And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?’”
(Job 1:7-8, ESV)
You see, God had not abandoned Job and was not punishing Him.
As God allowed Satan to cast suffering on Job, He was using Job as an instrument for His glory. And the whole time, He had His hand of protection over Job.
In the end, God blessed Job with twice as much as he had before (Job 42:10).
The story of Job teaches us that, even in the midst of our suffering and even if those material possessions do not come at the end of a bumpy road, God is working behind the scenes.
And we can trust that He is working for us and never against us!
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David Pollard at Rammond James Partners Financial Group, which specializes in helping families and businesses manage their investments so that they can spend their time where it matters most.
Tillman Eye Center, which serves Carrollton, GA with a wide range of optometry services in a professional and comfortable environment with staff who care.
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