Our Gifted Calling – Job 23:8-10

“Our Gifted Calling”

“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward,
but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth
work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right
hand, that I cannot see him: But he knoweth the way that I
take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.”
Job 23:8-10

It is in these times when life is difficult that we need to
remember Jesus said, “In the world ye shall have tribulation’
(John 16:33). And that has been granted, that is, gifted on the
behalf of Christ, not only to believe Him but to suffer for Him.
I know sometimes we don’t want the gift of darkness and
loneliness. Since Jesus obeyed His Father through the things
He suffered, then we too can follow in His steps (cf. Heb. 5:8).
God desires intimacy with us, but on His terms, and those
terms include times of darkness and loneliness.
To the believing soul, however bewildered at the moment
of dark opposition or the weariness of loneliness and defeat,
there is the awareness that the Lord is our true Light and
salvation. In the darkness one learns the wonderful lesson
pictured by the Psalmist: “Unto the upright there ariseth light
in the darkness” (Psa. 112:4). In the darkness, not after it!!
Our God is all-knowing and perfectly loving and will
never forget you. He will transform you, developing and
growing you, through suffering, pain, trials, loneliness and
darkness. No one can believe that except a Christian! And, as
a Christian, you can count on it, just as you count on the sun
rising. God delights to show Himself strong, not after
darkness, but in it! (cf. Micah 7:8). – D.O.

Prepared by Roger Fulk, from the “Baptist Bread” February 7, 2024. devotional by author DON OHM, (Retired), San Antonio, TX. With permission from Tim Green, editor Baptist Bread.  http://timgreenministries.org/the-baptist-bread/