If you would like to read the actual mini-booklet, Is God Listening, What if He Doesn’t Answer? you can purchase downloaded or hardcopy from New Growth Press at this website: https://newgrowthpress.com/is-god-listening-what-if-he-doesnt-answer/

The Man Who Lost Everything

Sometimes we are overwhelmed by a series of events that pile one heartbreaking circumstance upon another and then another and then another. I lost a brother-in-law to suicide as a way out of alcohol addiction, then my Dad died a slow and agonizing death before my eyes and in my care, and a friend since 1st grade who was an oh-so-faithful-prayer partner died of lung cancer even though she never smoked a day in her life. But these personal losses of mine are nothing compared to those of Job, The Man Who Lost Everything.

Listen to this list of losses: donkeys and oxen and the servants who cared for them; sheep and the shepherds who cared for them; camels and the servants who cared for them; all of his sons and daughters. At the receipt of this news, Job fell on his face on the ground and worshipped God. But things got even worse than losing all his wealth and his children — he became deathly and painfully ill, an outcast from his community! He cried out to God — Where are You? Have You abandoned me? Why won’t You answer my prayers?

To add insult to injury, his three best friends came to visit. At first they just sat with Job and mourned with him. Then they began accusing him of having committed some secret and horrible sin for which his losses were God’s punishment. Job friends tormented and shamed him even though he maintained his innocence. He asked God to vindicate him before his accusing friends, but God remained silent. Job was stripped of wealth, children, health, and now reputation. Only God could restore him and God was silent.

Job interpreted God’s silence as absence. His tormenting friends assumed the same. But all were wrong. God was not absent and Job was innocent. Job longed for God’s presence to prove his innocence. But the pain continued, unabated. It continued for 37 chapters.

Sometimes we cannot see the end of our suffering — there doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel. But Chapter 38 did come for Job — God answered him. If we persevere, if we hang on, Chapter 38 will come for us, too.

Blessings,
Cheri