Trusting Divine Process
By: Pastor Bailey Miller
“...The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
– Job 1:21
There is a steady theme of scripture that confronts our earthly comfort and limited knowledge, and is yet eternally worth wrestling with: God takes, gives, and is always good. According to His divine sovereignty, his taking is typically accompanied by His giving– not arbitrarily or just because He can, but rather to reveal His will which is our greatest good.
This is not the “give and take” of transactional exchange as if to presuppose we have anything to bring to the table other than ourselves as clay and living sacrifices, nor is the process framed in such a way as to establish that we deserve anything or are entitled to good and gracious gifts.
To walk with God is to be invited into a life where our comfort must decrease so our nearness to Him may increase. We are not always given clarity in the circumstances, but we are always afforded Christ as our cornerstone.
A Holy Pattern: Scripture’s Testimony
In many biblical stories, we witness how God lovingly removed things from His servants: status, comfort, sight, control, even life itself– so they may be pruned and sanctified according to His redemptive plan.
A Trusting Heart
Often, we pray for God's provision and expect it to come by way of alleviation or relief. While this may be the means of God’s will being established at times, we will also at other times share in the sufferings of Christ and be disciplined by God as our perfectly loving, Heavenly Father. In either case, we are freed to look beyond what is momentarily pressing and unto what is eternally awaiting.
Loss of control may give birth to deeper trust.
Loss of comfort might awaken deeper devotion.
Loss of status can make way for biblical humility.
Loss of direction positions us for God’s instruction.
Loss of health gives weakness to boast in.
Loss of understanding bends us to deeper study.
Loss of life births eternity.
Through any earthly loss, we are invited to take a position of holy reverence: not demanding explanations, but worshipping with full trust even when the way is unclear. God is not obligated to satisfy our understanding, but He certainly grants every help and hope by way of His Spirit.
Nowhere is this mystery more profound than at the cross. God took from His Son breath, comfort, dignity, life itself so that we might receive mercy and Christ His Heavenly throne and promised bride. It is at the place of greatest loss that the fullness of divine love is poured out and reveals that God takes nothing without eternal purpose.
Walking Forward in Trust
If you find yourself in a season of loss or pruning, let tGod’s living word remind you: God's work is not only in what He gives, but in how He gives which can be through what He takes away.
“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.”
— Job 13:15
May we become a people who don’t merely endure earthly trials, but ultimately rejoice at God’s eternal hand behind them– sovereignly orchestrating all for the good of His children and the treasure of His glory.