Connecting with God When Experiencing Hard Times

What We Can Apply from the Story of Job During Hard Times

Just because we are Christians who follow the Lord, we are not exempt from hard times. The story of Job can be very encouraging for believers who are experiencing pain and heartache. We are reminded to directs our eyes on Jesus Christ and the sacrifice He endured for us. When we fix our eyes on Christ, we take our eyes off of our pain and suffering and on the sovereignty of God.

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:16-18

The Story of Job

The book of Job is not an easy read. If we don’t take the time to understand the lessons, it can be a dreary and unpleasant read. It is full of extreme pain and suffering, yet it’s a great reminder to lean on the Lord during the most difficult of times. Honestly, the first time I read through it, it didn’t speak much to me, but the second time is when I begin to see how encouraging it is in the midst of hard times.

Job was a blameless and upright man who feared the Lord and turned away from evil. His life overflowed with spiritual blessings and physical blessings and the Lord covered his life with a hedge of protection. (Job 1:8-10) One day while Satan was in God’s presence, the Lord spoke of Job as His faithful servant, though Satan argued that Job would curse God to His face if Job lost all of his possessions. Then God in His sovereignty allowed Satan to test Job by taking from Job. Job was first tested with the loss of his possessions and children, then next, his health. 

What We Can Apply from the Story of Job During Hard Times

Praise God in the Midst of Hard Times

After Job heard the tragic news from multiple messengers one after another, Job was filled with grief and sorrow, then fell to his knees and… worshiped. (Job 1:20) You read that right, Job worshiped. Job did not blame the Lord for his suffering, nor did he respond with sin. Job 1:22 says, “In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.” Instead, Job turned to praising God, since the Lord was still His Sovereign God and he knew that all his blessings were from God.

God is our sovereign Father who gives and takes away. As hard as it is for our minds to understand “why” God allows difficult circumstances to happen in our life, God still is love and there for us throughout it all. God is good and His ways are perfect. The Lord God is in control of even the hardest times of our life. We are made to worship the Lord for who He is, not only for what He has blessed us with. 

Stand on the Truths of God 

Job declared the truths of God throughout his suffering. He refused to curse God, like his wife tried to convince him to do. (Job 2:9-10) God is sovereign, even in our intense pain and sufferings. Job rested in the sovereignty of God and we can rest in that same truth too. God is good. God is sovereign. God is God.

The wisdom of God is far greater than the wisdom of men. The Bible is full of truths about God and God’s constant faithfulness to His people. We are God’s children; He will never abandon us. When we rely on the wisdom of God, we take our eyes off our circumstances and start to see things from a spiritual perspective. 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Isaiah 55:9-10, ESV

Find Comfort from the Lord 

“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit.”

Psalm 34:18, ESV

Job called his friends miserable comforters (Job 16:1) because of their accusations and harsh words. They thought that Job must have committed a bad sin for all this calamity to happen to him. Job knew that he did not sin against God, in reality, he continually ran to God even during the devastation. He clung to the fact that God is God. Job fixed his eyes on God, not his trials and sufferings. Like Job, let us find comfort in God, even though we don’t understand why we are in a time of grief. 

Jesus can sympathize with us in our sufferings, because He faithfully endured temptations and sufferings. “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) We serve a Savior who not only cares about us, but who understands and relates with us—that is such a comfort!

“He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”

Isaiah 53:3, ESV

Trust that God Has a Purpose

God is a good Father and even though we don’t always understand His ways, we can trust Him in all things. In trials and suffering, it can often feel as if God is not there or that He must not care about us. This is completely normal; we are not alone in this feeling. Job indicated that he felt like that too through this passage in Job 23:8-10:

“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I do not perceive him; on the left hand when he is working, I do not behold him; he turns to the right hand, but I do not see him. But he knows the way that I take; when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.”

Job felt like God was far, yet ultimately, he knew that God was near to him despite how he felt. He was hopeful that God would use this time of suffering for a purpose. He didn’t know the purpose, but he knew his God. For he said, “…when he has tried me, I shall come out as gold.”

Gold is refined by the extreme heat of fire, similarly, God can refine us through the trials and sufferings that we experience in this life. It says in 1 Peter 1:6-7, “In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Our sufferings and trials can bring spiritual growth and genuine faith. Our faith may be tested by the fire to bring praise, glory, and honor for Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

The story of Job ends with God restoring Job’s fortunes. In fact, God gave him double what Job had before. (Job 42:10) The latter days of Job were more blessed than his beginning. Job had more children and lived to 140 years. He was able to see four generations of his sons’ sons. What wonderful blessings the Lord brings upon those who love Him!

I believe that Job would tell us that God is worthy of praise, even in the pain and heartache. Even when we don’t understand, we can look to God and His goodness, faithfulness, trustworthiness, and sovereignty. God is for us, on our side, and with us through it all. Let us cling to the faithfulness of God in the hard times.

“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

1 Peter 5:8-10, ESV