Difficult circumstances are very real. But often, we don’t see how God is at work in these circumstances because we see so much of what is at work against us. Scripture shows us an example in the book of Job. Job was a man who lost everything important to him because of his righteousness before God. The devil believed Job served God only because God favored him, and that Job would curse God when he seemed to lose that favor. But the devil was wrong. Through many trials, Job did not stop believing in God nor did he curse God. Job not only believed what he heard, he believed what he saw.
I would like to be more like Job. I know I am too easily moved and too easily challenged. I cry out and complain about my circumstances when things don’t go my way. Many of us tend to base our beliefs on the promises God makes to be good to us. We put our faith in what we hear in His word. But that’s not enough. To endure the way God intends, we must not only hear with our ears, but we must be able to see with our eyes and hearts how God is at work in our most challenging circumstances. We must look for what we hear!
Scripture encourages us this way in Psalm 34:19-20, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones; Not one of them is broken.” I’m sure when we hear these words, it’s difficult to find them encouraging at all. We question what we hear, but if we look, we can see God in these words. We hear, “Many are the afflictions of the righteous.” Why, we might ask, must the righteous face many afflictions? When we hear something negative, we tend to withdraw and shut down. When we do this with scripture, we give up the chance to hear all that God says, and it becomes difficult for us to see Him in what He says. We need to keep looking. He says many are the afflictions, but He also says He will deliver us through them all.
I want to share a method to help you not only hear all that God says, but also see Him in all that He says. The scripture says, “many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” Reverse how you read this scripture and look for the promise of God’s good. Now the scripture says that the Lord delivers the righteous out of all the many afflictions he will face. This is what I mean. This way we can hear more easily that the Lord is saying He will deliver you from all the afflictions you will face. You can be sure of that because He said it. We are more easily encouraged when we hear Him in this way. And because we are encouraged by what we hear, our eyes and our hearts can more easily see Him at work in ways we would not have seen before. We are never happy with afflictions, but we can be joyful to know that He is always going to be there to deliver us, because He said it. Sometimes, nothing will change about our circumstances until we change how we see our circumstances.
So, if you want to learn to see Him in all areas of your life, you must go beyond hearing simply what the Word says. You must get to a place of assurance that He said it, you saw Him in it, and He is performing what He said He would perform. Towards the end of his trials, Job said to God “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You.” Job was saying to God, when I listen well enough, I will see you in all that I hear, and then I will learn to see You in my circumstances always. God said He would deliver the righteous, so learn not only to hear Him, but to see Him at work in delivering you through your daily trials. He said it, you see it, and you believe it. Live a Delivered Life. Love you.
Live Delivered 