Breath / No Breath

SCRIPTURE: Job 13:15 NIV Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him; I will surely defend my ways to his face.

THOUGHT: My Mom used to say, “bad breath is better than no breath,” and I think Job might agree. Job loved God, lived with integrity, and had absolutely no idea of why this horrifying storm of loss was upon him. His friends tried to tell him he was egotistical, sinful, and receiving fair judgment for his sins; his closest family told him to give up on God and die. But rather than allowing his hope and confidence to be shaken, Job declares that even if God takes his breath, he will continue to hope – and while he has breath, even if it’s bad breath, streaked with sickness, rotten with pain – he will continue his conversation with the high and holy about the losses he is enduring.

Did you ever try to live right, follow the commandments of God, and love others only to find yourself in a storm and wonder why God didn’t protect you? Did you hear the whispers to admit defeat and give up? Suggestions that your own sins were too great for God to really love you?

Well, this is the enviable position believers finds themselves in: we have become righteous in God’s eyes because God chooses to see Christ in us rather than us (2 Cor. 5:21). This is gospel. We don’t have to give up hope, and we don’t have to give up uncomfortable conversations with God. We do have to trust that God is, and that God rewards those who diligently seek him (Heb. 11:6).

SONG: Though You Slay Me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyUPz6_TciY

PRAYER: Oh God, we long for answers in the midst of the storm. Sometimes, like Job, all we get is faith that you are bigger than our circumstances and that you are good, even in the darkest turbulence. Increase our trust and confidence – and never let us go!