Reach for the Light

Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;
I will surely defend my ways to his face.

Job 13:15 (NIV)

If you have someone in your life who always seems to have the right words (or lack of words) when life is hard, you should hold on to that friendship. Because the opposite is more often true when life is hard—people say and do all the wrong things instead. That’s how Job’s story went, anyway.

His hallelujah was as hard-fought as it gets. His ten sons and daughters died when the house where they were eating dinner collapsed on them. The entire estate he’d worked his whole life to build—thousands of sheep, goats, camels, oxen, and donkeys—and the many servants he’d hired to manage it were all gone. He’d lost everything, rapid fire, as tragedy after horrific tragedy hit.

As Job sat on the ground, grieving in ashes and scraping boils that covered him from head to toe, his wife gave her hot take on the situation: “Curse God and die” (Job 2:9b). She thought Job should curse God, not praise Him. His buddies weren’t helping, either. They thought Job must have done something to make God mad. But Job essentially said, “I’m going to keep trusting God, no matter what He lets come my way. I know who I am to Him, so who I am to other people doesn’t really matter.” He did not say this as a battle cry of defiance in suffering but as an act of worship, a surrender in trust. He chose to reach for the light, not because he understood what God was doing, but because he knew who God was.

Sometimes, praise costs. In a season of suffering, your praise makes you vulnerable, maybe even to darkness, maybe even to darkness in the people you’re closest to. But God is still completely worthy of your hope and your praise. Reach through the darkness for His light.

• What darkness are you wrestling with right now? What would it look like for you to “reach for the light”?
• Personalize Job’s statement of faith for yourself: Even if God allows me to face _____________________________________, I will hope in Him.
• Now, pray that statement of faith as a declaration to God.