Sunday, September 30, 2018

Seeing God’s Purpose

by Dr. Paul Chappell

“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.”

Job 23:8–11

Very few people have suffered the number and intensity of the trials that Job faced. His story is so familiar that even the secular world uses it as a reference guide for struggles. Yet for all its familiarity, too many times the point of the story gets lost. All of us endure hardship and affliction from time to time. Thankfully most of these trials are not on such a life-altering scale, but that does not mean that they are not painful and difficult to endure. The underlying truth we must remember is the one that Job kept coming back to: God is always faithful, and we can trust His purposes even when we cannot see what He is doing.

Alan Redpath wrote, “There is nothing—no circumstance, no trouble, no testing—that can ever touch me until, first of all, it has gone past God and past Christ right through to me. If it has come that far, it has come with a great purpose, which I may not understand at the moment. But as I refuse to become panicky, as I lift up my eyes to Him and accept it as coming from the throne of God for some great purpose of blessing to my own heart, no sorrow will ever disturb me, no trial will ever disarm me, no circumstance will cause me to fret—for I shall rest in the joy of what my Lord is! That is the rest of victory!”

Today’s Growth Principle: 

Victory is not found in the absence of trials, but in trusting God’s purposes through them.