Your knower

Job's despair was palpable in today's reading.  His friends didn't believe him.  God had abandoned him. His children were gone. His livelihood destroyed.  What did he have left to live for?  He knew he was innocent of any wrong doing and that there was no reason for what he was going through but he couldn't get anyone to listen to him or believe him.  Not even God.  You can feel him giving up hope.

In chapter 9 verse 29 Job says:  Since I am already found guilty, why should I struggle in vain.  He had no reason to keep pleading his case.  In his mind, it was done.  No matter what he did or what he said nothing changed for the better, in fact, they got worse.  So why even try?

How many of us have felt that way in our life?  We may not have been in such extreme distress but we felt hopeless.  We didn't see any way out of the situation we were in or the circumstances facing us.  So why even try.  Giving up would've been easier.  Laying done and calling it quits would've seemed the smarter choice. 

Thankfully, God holds our heart in His hand and even though at times it feels that He has abandoned us - He hasn't.  He is holding us together.  He is there, waiting for us to open our eyes to what He wants us to see. Or open our minds to what He wants us to learn.  Or open our heart to His love. 

I don't like going through hard times or through trials.  I've had my share and I honestly can't say that I liked any of them or enjoyed one moment of them.  What I have enjoyed and appreciated is when they are over.  It is amazing to come out the other side and see life from a new perspective.  God has stretched me and strengthened me and molded me in to someone that I never would've been if it wasn't for the trials and struggles.  Would I want to live them again, not on your life.  But would I want to miss out on who I have become because of them NO WAY! 

I'm not to fond of people or ministers who don't acknowledge the hard times in life.  Who want to maintain a polly-anna outlook and don't give people permission to hurt or struggle or question or be sad.  Life stinks sometimes.  Plain and simple.  Every day is not full of sunshine and flowers.  Some days are full of clouds and storms.  Luckily, as we learned earlier, God gave us a rainbow to renew our hope but that doesn't take away from the storm we weather to get to it. 

Job weathered the mother of all storms in life but his story doesn't end here.  There is more to come.  Just like our story hasn't ended yet either.  If we wake up tomorrow, then there is always hope.  We may not feel it but it is an absolute truth.  He loved God with everything he was and everything he had.  He just had no idea what God was doing.  Just like we often times don't understand what God is doing.

Job had a knower and you have one too.  Your knower is deep down...it's that place inside you that just knows.  You know the sky is blue, the grass is green, the sun comes up in the day and the moon at night.  That's the place...your knower....the place inside you that will remind you, God loves you! So listen to your knower.  When you feel despair coming, stop and listen and you'll make it through.