“I put my trust in You as my everlasting rock.” (Isaiah 26:4)
It is not our place as mortals to question the Good Lord Almighty, Maker of the heavens and earth, infinitely wise, source of knowledge, who has dominion and power over all He has created by the word of His mouth.
The story of Job is the perfect example of an upright man who worshipped God in spirit and truth, but calamity came upon him due to a bet that Satan had with God to test him and remove all of God’s blessings to see whether Job would still maintain his integrity.
Job maintained his integrity in spite of all the calamity he suffered, and his wife and friends doubting his integrity, but he wanted to question God as to why He allowed all the calamity that befell him despite his righteousness and integrity before God.
When God finally revealed Himself to Job and asked Job certain questions (Job 38–41), he bowed down before God and made himself nothing before His presence, realising that it is not in any mortal’s place to question God.
Our duty as mortals created by His mighty hand is to trust and obey Him, even when things do not make sense and all things around us fight against us.
In our troubles, afflictions, pains, grief, and testing of our faith, God is with us as He has promised:
“In trouble, I will be with you” (Psalm 91:15).
“My peace I leave with you” (John 14:27).
“Do not fear, for I am with you; I will help you and strengthen you and uphold you with My righteous right hand” (Isaiah 41:10).
“When you call, I will answer” (Jeremiah 33:3).
God is faithful and true in all His promises, and He will do all He has promised.
He calls us His dearly loved children to walk in love and not in fear, for His perfect love has cast out all fears from our minds, for he who fears has not been made perfect in His love (1 John 4:18).
We are called to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7), to be humble and gentle like our Lord Jesus Christ in our hearts (Matthew 11:29) and take up our cross every day and follow the example our Lord and Saviour has set for us to emulate as dearly loved children who believe in Him and have received Him into our hearts (Luke 9:23).
We are called to be led by the Spirit and not by our flesh, for the flesh counts for nothing but God is Spirit (John 6:63), and He who is in us is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4), who holds the world in bondage to sin and disobedience of God’s just and fair command to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and to love others as we love ourselves (Mark 12:30–31).
We thank God that we have been given victory over the evil one and the world (1 John 5:4–5), and we have overwhelming victory over all things that fight against us, and that Satan’s head will soon be crushed under our feet (Romans 16:20).
Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us put off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily ensnares, and run the race before us with perseverance (Hebrews 12:1).
As it is written: “Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand… Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (1 Peter 5:6; James 4:7).