Holding On To Hope by Nancy Guthrie

HOLDING ON TO HOPE

by Nancy Guthrie

Nancy and her husband David had 2 children born with Zellweger Syndrome and they only lived for 6 months. Throughout their short lives they were fed by tubes. There was a 25% chance of having a child with this syndrome and Nancy`s 2 children Hope and Gabriel were born with it. This little book shows how through the life of Job in the Old Testament Nancy learned that God was in control of the whole situation. I have to admit that Job is not a book I particularly like to read but having an introduction by Nancy it has given me an interest in reading it now!

So Job was a man who lived in the land of Uz. He had 7 sons and 3 daughters, 7000 sheep, 3000 camels, 500 oxen and 500 female donkeys in addition to many servants. He was blameless, had complete integrity, feared God and stayed away from evil. In one day everything was taken from him. God allowed this to happen - the amazing fact is that in the bible there is a recorded conversation between Satan and God. Satan thought Job was faithful to God only because he was supernaturally protected by God and had such a comfortable life and that if it was all taken away Job would turn on God.

So God allowed Satan to hurt Job. He was allowed to take all that he had but not to physically hurt him - what could be worse that the emotional pain Job went through in losing his family.

Job`s story is about much more than his suffering. He discovered God in a way he had never known before.

Guess what! His second half of life was better than his first half! He died an old man who had lived a long good life! He didn`t just get double of everything he had back again and even 7 more sons and 3 more daughters. Job was blessed through his brokenness by his restless pursuit of God. He gained a new, more intimate relationship with God that he never could have found without the pain and sorrow.

And God has the same purpose in mind for you and for me if we will look for him! We will be able to say "I`ve not only heard of you, I`ve seen you! I know you." And perhaps he will use pain to bring us to that place!

Job, out of the deepest kind of agony and pain from loss, openly mourned. He didn`t cover up his sadness or put on a happy face or offer religious-sounding cliches. He tore his robe and shaved his head. He hurt. And he was not ashamed to show how deeply he hurt.

There was more to Job`s initial response to his loss than just mourning and agony. As Job responded to calamity in his life, he fell to the ground before God in worship. He didn`t have to go to a temple. His faith was so genuine and permeated his life so completely that he recognised he could worship God right where he was, just as he was. For Job, worship was a way of life.

When our skin is pricked by a thorn, what comes out is what`s inside: blood. When our lives are pricked by difficulty, what comes out is what`s inside. What came out when Job was not just pricked, but pierced, was worship.

We worship because God is worthy, not necessarily because we "feel" like it. We get our eyes off ourselves and our sorrow or problems. We focus on God and this puts our difficulties in to proper perspective.
Often when unfair, undeserved suffering comes into our lives, we demand to hold someone responsible. But the someone we most often hold responsible for the suffering in our lives is God.

Job did not have the mind-set that he "deserved" his comfortable, blessed life. Job did not blame God for taking away everything and everyone he loved so dearly. Somehow Job avoided blaming God for his devastating circumstances. How did he do it?

Remember back to the introduction - the very first words of Job`s story started with "he feared God." A person who fears God recognises God`s authority over every area of his life. Proverbs 9 verse 10 "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom".

Knowing God involves studying God`s word.

Most of us spend our lives doing everything we can to avoid suffering. We expect a cure for every illness, a replacement for every loss, a fix for every failure. We are shocked and shaken when hardship comes our way.

Job wasn`t looking for suffering and yet it didn`t seem to catch him off guard. Job said "Should we expect only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?"

"For men are not cast off by the Lord forever. Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love. For he does not willingly bring affliction or grief to the children of men." Lamentations 3 verses 31 – 33.

This means no meaningless suffering - God allows suffering for a purpose, a good purpose, a holy purpose.

Think of Jesus` death on Calvary. God was pleased by what Jesus` death accomplished for you and for me. He was pleased to demonstrate his love for the human race through such a significant sacrifice.

History`s most evil act brought about the greatest good of all time.
As if it wasn`t enough for Job to lose his children, his flocks and herds, then came the sores - from the top of his head to the soles of his feet!
That was the final straw. He cursed the day he was born! God appreciated Job`s honesty - he even commended him for it, for his honesty about his feelings as well as his honesty about God!

Job even asked to die - imagine he contemplated death. Job wouldn`t take his own life but he wanted God to take it and God wouldn`t.

Even in the midst of all this pain Job found hope in the fact that he had not denied God`s word. He had not turned his back on God!
There is no comfort to be found away from God. Revenge, ritual, retreat - they don`t bring any lasting relief from the pain.

Job struggled and asked God in a quest to understand the answer to that big question we all have when something bad happens - Why?
Job`s friends had all sorts of answers for him. Job knew that listening to his friends would not get his questions answered. He needed to hear from God and to do that he had to question God.

"But as for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that he will stand upon the earth at last. And after my body has decayed, yet in my body I will see God! I will see him for myself. Yes, I will see him with my own eyes. I am overwhelmed at the thought!" Job 19 verses 25 - 27

Isaiah 57 verses 1 and 2 "The righteous pass away; the godly often die before their time. And no one seems to care or wonder why. No one seems to understand that God is protecting them from the evil to come. For the godly who die will rest in peace."

Throughout the story of Job we read that he not only had to deal with his suffering but also with the response of all his friends who, in many ways, added to his suffering. Job`s friends pointed fingers, pontificated, probed. They were doing the best they could.

At the beginning they came to him and wept and mourned with Job in silence. But then they made their first mistake - they started talking. And they didn`t know what they were talking about.

How was Job able to get past all the accusations his friends sent his way? Job prayed for his friends and "the Lord accepted Job`s prayer."
Job wanted to hear from God. He wanted to understand why he was suffering. Finally after all the questioning and struggle in a voice from out of a storm, God spoke.

You might think God would have set the record straight on all the fine points. But that isn`t what he did. He answered Job`s questions with his own set of questions - reminding Job that he was questioning almighty God.

In his response God did not explain suffering or how to avoid suffering. Suffering is a mystery ... and Job came to respect the mystery. Job came to understand that because he knew who God is, he can accept what God gives - even when he didn`t understand it.
God did not choose to reveal everything to Job. He didn`t have to.
We tend to think that if we only knew why we were suffering we would be able to bear it. But would we?

God expands our perspective by giving us a glimpse of his ablity to run the universe in contrast to our limited understanding and experience.

Job was not aware of the conversation between God and Satan. He had no idea that his faithfulness in extreme difficulty mattered so much. But it did. Job teaches us that our response to testing matters too.

Our task is not to decipher exactly how all of life`s pieces fit and what they all mean but to remain faithful and obedient to God who knows all mysteries. That is the kind of faith that is pleasing to God - a faith that is determined to trust him when he has not answered all the questions.

At the end of Job`s story we begin to catch a glimpse of how God used the pain in Job`s life. After all the crying, after all the questioning, God revealed himself as sovereign over all creation and Job recognised God`s authority over the universe and God`s authority in his life. He came to a place of submission to God`s sovereignty.

Submission to God`s sovereignty means bowing the knee whether or not we understand, whether or not we have it figured out, whether or not we agree. In that submission, we find the strength and grace to keep going. We even find joy in the journey.

When we come to these hard places, we discover the real benefit of walking with God and pursuing an intimate relationship with him, when there is no tragedy driving us to him. When we know God, when we know his character by studying his word, we can trust him.
Job`s life as he knew it had ended. His property had been destroyed, his children had died and he was still covered with scabs. He had been to the depths, craving death, craving answers, craving restoration. His wife and his friends had provided no comfort.

But finally God spoke and as God revealed himself in the whirlwind, Job realised that even though he had feared and followed God, he hadn`t really known God. Through suffering God had revealed himself to Job in an unmistakable, intimate way. Job recognised that though he had known much about God before, he now knew God in a new, more meaningful way that would transform the remainder of his life.
It is one thing to believe that God is faithful and will supply all your needs - even in the darkest of times. it is another thing to experience it.

It is when we are hurting the most that we run to God. We recognise that we are powerless and that he is powerful. We pray and we see him more clearly because we`re desperately looking for him. And in our looking for him, we find him to be more loving and faithful than we`ve ever seen him before.

That is always God`s purpose: to use whatever means he sees fit to bring us to a closer relationship with him, to create in us a faith that will give us the strength to keep holding on to hope - not a flimsy wishing or a hope that everything will be fixed in this life but genuine biblical hope that one day what is unseen will be seen. This faith is confidence in an eternal future in which God sets everything right.