“Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy? Will you torment a windblown leaf? Will you chase after dry chaff? For you write down bitter things against me and make me reap the sins of my youth.” – Job 13:24-26

Such pain-wracked words break my heart when I read them.

Yet here lay Job in all his agony. Frustrated by the tormenting accusations of his “friends”, he pours out his request to God.

“Please, God! Tell me what I’ve done wrong if indeed this is your judgment. I’m looking all the way back into my youth to see what I could repent of to undo this pain!”

How many times have we been there? Trying to figure out what God is doing and wondering if He’s still there.

Oh, He’s there. And His testimony is all that matters.

“Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that fears God, and eschews evil?” – Job 1:8.

Job was confused. He was frustrated. His faith was tested to the point of breaking.

But it held. For in the midst of his painful questioning he also utters the words of deepest dependence.

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him.” – Job 13:15.

Those words. Their triumphant cry rises amid the tears of affliction and doubt. A confidence surging against the tide of despair.

That is our inheritance as children of God and we must lay hold of it.

“Be you also patient; stablish your hearts……You have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy.” – Job 5:7a and 5:11b

I’m so thankful that the gates of hell will never prevail against the church. That in the end we win! That each day is a day to take ground back for the kingdom, not to give it up.

Are you struggling under a weight of frustration or pain? Take some time today to cry out to the Lord. Lay all that pain out for Him that His love might hold you close, and a wellspring of faith surge in your heart. God always gets the last word!