Job 13:15 “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.”
I came across a billboard the other day that said, “Everything works out in the end. If it hasn’t worked out, it isn’t the end.” To be marked with the kind of tenaciousness that trusts God will, in the end, work all things together for good not only pleases God, but demonstrates we serve a God who is worthy of such daring trust.
It takes an element of spiritual audacity to trust God no matter what. Job provides one of the most profound examples of spiritual audacity in the Bible. He loses everything—family, wealth, reputation, health—and he doesn’t understand why. He’s confused. His concept of God’s righteousness and fairness is being tested to the last degree. He didn’t have an assurance as to how his situation would turn out, but there was no way he was going to “curse God and die” as his wife suggested. If he was going to die, he would die hoping, trusting. Partway through our struggles doesn’t provide a clear vantage point in seeing how God wants to use our crises for higher purposes. But, like Job, it presents the perfect place for the strengthening of trust.
It is impossible to develop a greater degree of trust until it is put to the test. At the Last Supper when Jesus explained to his disciples that he would be returning to the Father and that they couldn’t follow him, it must have been the worst news they could imagine. For three years they had traveled with Jesus, ate where he ate, slept where he slept; they had rejoiced in every miracle and pondered every teaching; they had given up everything to be his disciples. Now they were told to continue the work…without him. How did he encourage them to meet this seemingly insurmountable task?
With words that continue to be the source of our comfort today…“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me” (John 14:1). If you are in a place right now where, even though it is hard, you declare, “Jesus I trust you,” be assured that your cry is resounding in the courts of heaven.