"Every year you grow, you will find me bigger."
That is a beautiful description of a Jesus-follower's
enlarging relationship with Jesus Christ - and our
enlarging view of how big our Lord really is. And
the experiences that grow us the most inevitably
are the experiences that hurt the most. It was only
after all of Job's almost infinite suffering that
he could say to God, "My ears had heard of You
but now my eyes have seen You." (Job 42:5)
And every experience of your life - including what
you're facing right now - is designed by your Lord
to enlarge your view of Him and to deepen your relationship
with Him. Now, Job never appeared on the reality
TV series, Survivor, but he sure won his survivor
challenges big-time. And he models for us the secret
of survivors' faith - the kind that makes it through
the most trying, most painful, most unexplainable
crucibles of your life.
That secret is in our word for today from the
Word of God in Job 23, beginning in verse 8. He
says, "If I go to the east, He is not there; if
I go to the west, I do not find Him. When He is
at work in the north, I do not see Him; when He
turns to the south, I catch no glimpse of Him."
Job is in the depths of his personal valley, and
he just can't see any visible sign of God. Listen,
we have all been there - the pain is so real and
God seems so silent.
But here comes survivors' faith. "But He knows
the way that I take; when He has tested me, I will
come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed
His steps; I have kept to His way without turning
aside. I have not departed from the commandments
of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth
more than my daily bread."
Alright, here's the secret: survivors' faith is
based not on what God does, but on Who He is. That's
how spiritual grownups live. You come to the place
where you do not let your faith rise and fall with
the circumstances - your faith is anchored in what
you know God is always like. No matter what the
circumstances. And that's what you trust! And, that's
what keeps you going when there's not much else
around you to go on.
As you cling to your Lord through the deepest of
valleys, through the darkest of times, you discover,
more than you ever knew before, what a mighty, majestic
God you belong to. And He'll seem bigger to you
every step of the way. Oh, it isn't that He's grown
- it's that you have - by trusting in who your God
is, not in what you God does
