God Sees

“I cannot find God anywhere—in front or back of me, to my left or my right. God is always at work, though I never see him. But he knows what I am doing, and when he tests me, I will be pure as gold.” Job 23:8-10 CEV*

When he says this, Job is enduring unimaginable suffering. And his friends’ pious half-truths aren’t helping. He wishes he could find God and plead his case in person. His conscience is clean, and he knows he’s not suffering as a punishment. Why won’t God rescue him?

Pastor Charles Price (www.livingtruth.ca) caught my attention by paraphrasing the verse this way: “I don’t know where God is in this, but He knows where I am. And when it’s over, I’ll emerge as gold.”

His point was, sometimes things are so hard that we can’t see God anywhere. But don’t panic. God sees us. Where we can only see the problems and pain, He sees how He plans to bring good from it.

I link this to one of my favourite comfort verses: “Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God.” Isaiah 50:10b, NIV.**

When we don’t understand, when all we have is questions and pain, we can choose to trust God. He knows. He loves us. And He will never abandon us.

A song for those hard times: Casting Crowns’ “Praise You in This Storm.”

*Contemporary English Version (CEV) Copyright © 1995 by American Bible Society

**New International Version (NIV) Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

4 thoughts on “God Sees

  1. Bonnie

    I like that paraphrase – so cool. Reminds me of a Scott Krippayne song about “sometimes He calms the storm, and sometimes He holds me tight and lets the winds go wild.” He’s always there with us.

    On another note… there’s some formatting details showing up when I view your blog. I don’t know if others can see them too or if the problem is with my computer somehow.

    Reply
  2. joannamallory

    Bonnie, I love that song lyric. And thanks for letting me know about the formatting. Funny, what looks fine on Firefox looks different in Internet Explorer. I think it’s all fixed now except the fonts on one page.

    Reply
  3. Sheila Davidson

    Joanna,
    This is a gorgeous blog site!! And your insights and writing are lovely, too. I’m glad to see your thoughts ‘out there’ for others of us to grow by. Well done – way to go!
    God bless you,
    – Sheila

    Reply
  4. Jan Cox

    Just what I needed for a friend today. Thank you for listening to His Spirit and writing from it.
    – Jan

    Reply

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