A Worthy Hope

A Worthy Hope

Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him.

Job 13:15

IN WORD How do you react when your circumstances are difficult? Do you try to maneuver your way out of them? Do you blame other people? Or worse, do you blame God? It’s a common response that nearly everyone has given in to. Even when we know that blaming Him is wrong and misguided, we still sometimes nurse resentment that He let us go through the trial. We just don’t see the big picture when we’re struggling with the small one.

God has a multitude of reasons for allowing our troubling situations. Perhaps He is working on some of the people in our lives. Maybe He is working out His timing to reap the maximum harvest when His solution comes in the end. Or He could be proving a point to His enemy about His glory, as He did with Job—and our reaction is the key. Maybe He is even working on us—our character flaws, personality issues, or spiritual growth. Unpruned trees bear less fruit, so He must shape us differently. But we’re surprised—and angry—when His pruning hand is not as gentle as we’d like.

The question we need to settle in our hearts is whether we believe God is good. It isn’t hard to hold such a belief when His blessings seem bountiful. But the blessing of hardship? We wonder where His favor has gone. We grow distant, resentful, and bitter over the harshness of His loving hand. Like a child who has just been spanked—or simply told no—we pout. God just doesn’t seem fair.

IN DEED If we really believe our circumstances are under the hand of a sovereign God—and that God is always good—then bitterness, anger, and resentment can have no hold on us. A vengeful, sovereign God is no comfort, and neither is a good but impotent God. But a firm belief in both His goodness and His sovereignty over our every circumstance is an incredibly relaxing trust. An all-powerful, good-hearted God gives us absolutely nothing to fear except our own disobedience—and He even has a plan for that. We can always hope in Him.

Let God do with me whatever He will; whatever it be, it will be either heaven itself or some beginning of it.

—WILLIAM MOUNTFORD