July 30 – Implicit Trust (Job 13:13-19)

IN WORD:
When faith can look death in the face and say that God is good, it is true faith. It was not contingent on miracles and blessings, and it was not uprooted by trials. When Satan’s savagery intimidates and wounds, the truly faithful heart can say that God is faithful. It does not let superficial evidence impugn the steadfast character of the loving God.
This does not mean, however, that those with faith cannot ask questions. We cannot ask accusing questions — that would be sin — but we can ask God to show us His ways. We can ask if our pain is the result of our own sin or of some other divine purpose. We can ask God to show up in our trial and use it to reveal Himself in a deeper way.
Job certainly did. His great statement of faith — “Though he slay me, yet will I trust him” — was a preface to another declaration: “I will surely defend my ways to his face.” In other words, Job committed to hang on to faith regardless, but in the meantime he was going to ask some questions. Faith does not imply ignorance. It allows us to discover God.
A story is told of a doctor in the jungle who was forced to do surgery on his young son without anesthesia. Would the son look at his father’s scalpel with horror or with trust? That would depend on the relationship. In this story, though the pain was excruciating, the son lay still in compliant trust. He knew who his father was, and he knew his father’s love.

IN DEED:
Do you? Can you look at the Father’s scalpel with an implicit trust that He knows what He’s doing? Are you certain of the love that is behind your trial? Even if He appears to slay you, will you still trust in Him? Genuine faith will always come to that point. It may ask a lot of “whys” in the meantime, but it knows that the answers, whatever they are, are not going to destroy the faith. That is certain. Regardless of our crisis, God is trustworthy.

“Hope can see heaven through the thickest clouds.”
-Thomas Benton Brooks-