The Ultimate Trial

We have started reading the book of Job for Morning Devotions this month. People tend to skip this book when reading the Bible, but actually everyone has to face trials when following God. As Job has been picked for Morning Devotion by lot this time, I believe God has His will in it.

The book of Job means a lot to Adino, the Senior Pastor of New Crop 611. He was once in jail in a dictatorship country and was sentenced to death. The book he often read was Job. He kept asking God, “Why has all this happened to me? Where is the way out? How long will I stay here?” When he was notified that the execution would be carried out within three days, the whole world seemed to fall apart. He could only ask himself, “What is the bottom line of following God?” It came to his mind at once that for all his life God had never wronged him, so he could not forsake Him at the last second. Simultaneously there was a voice from Satan inside him, “Worship me and I will save you to go home.” He responded to it, “Though I don’t understand what’s happening to me, I will not deny my Lord at this very moment.” Then he fell asleep in tears. Finally, God saved him through a series of miracles.

Some years later he came to 611 and became a pastor. Together with his wife, they experienced miscarriages twice and were trapped in deep grief. When they lost the twin fetuses for the second time, his wife kept asking him, “You are a preacher, do tell me why has God given us and taken away? It’s like He gives and you stretch out your hands to receive and yet He suddenly takes away. Is God really like that?” He had no answer at all and this verse popped up in his mind, “Then his wife said to him, ‘Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!’”(Job 2:9) He had experienced God’s salvation before and knew that He was good, but now he had really no answer. He could only choose to believe that God had His reason and that one day they would look back at the whole picture in heaven, and the answer would be there. That was his last life line, though as thin as fishing line, he knew that once he gave up this thin line of hope, his relationship with God, the enemy would win.

From what Job and Adino had experienced, though there seemed to be no answer to suffering, we can still see the faith in darkness. Job was struck with painful boils all over his body and lost everything except his breath, suffering with stabbing pain, yet he did not curse God. We will also face trials when following God, will we prevail? The book of Job tells us that God reigns till the end. He has counted and considered everything and trusted Job, so He allowed Satan to wage the warfare. However, He had already set the boundary, “Behold, he is in your hand, but spare his life.”(Ref. Job 2:6) May God give us sufficient grace and faith so that we will keep following Him even in trials!■【2023.12.24】