Most people have heard the song from the musical “Oklahoma,” which first premiered on Broadway in 1943. The refrain runs:

“Oh, what a beautiful mornin’

Oh, what a beautiful day

I’ve got a beautiful feelin’

Everything’s going my way”

As a Christian, it is easy to “praise the Lord” when it is a “beautiful mornin’ … beautiful day,” we have a “beautiful feelin’” and “everything’s going our way.”

But what if you don’t have a beautiful feelin’ and everything’s not going your way?

In the book of Job, we get a glimpse of a man whose life was flipped upside down overnight, and nothing was going his way, but he said, speaking of God, “Though He slay me, yet, will I trust Him.” (Job 13:15)

Would we say what Job said under the same circumstances? Or is there a limit to what God can do in our lives for us to trust Him?

Can we say, “Though He allow my spouse or child to die … Yet will I trust Him. Though He allows me or my loved one to become deathly ill or permanently paralyzed, blind or infirm … Yet will I trust Him. Though He allow me to go through financial ruin, a difficult marriage or even divorce … Yet will I trust Him?”

Many of the struggles that we experience in this life are not at the hand of a loving God. And when reading the book of Job, one must read it carefully, from the big picture perspective of a sovereign God and His grace, and not the limited knowledge and perspective of Job and his friends.

Many of life’s struggles are brought on by our own choices, by our own sin, by not walking in God’s will or by others’ actions. Some struggles simply come because we live in a sin-sick world where bad things happen to God’s faithful people.

But sometimes, they do come by the sovereign hand of God. Either for strengthening our faith, getting our attention because we are heading in the wrong direction or some other sovereign plan of His that we may never understand this side of heaven. But we can rest assured, that He is sovereign, and He is good!

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

We read in the book of Romans, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

The Bible says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.” (Hebrews 11:6) And Oswald Chambers said, “Faith by its very nature must be tried!”

If life were always “going our way,” we would not need to have faith in God.

The mere existence of difficulties, trials and hardships in this life stops us in our self-sufficient tracks and cause us to turn to God and rely on Him rather than ourselves. Those hardships prove to be reminders that we are mere mortals and not in control of anything, despite our beliefs to the contrary. But instead, that God is in control … of everything!

I have often said – Whatever draws us closer to the Lord is a good thing, even if the circumstance looks like a “bad thing.”

Friend, as gospel singer Babbie Mason said, “When you can’t trace His hand, trust His heart.”

To know Him is to love Him. And when we do, we will be able to say, as our brother Job said so many years ago – “Though He slay me, Yet will I trust Him.”

 

Lisa Hannan lives in Valdosta with her husband, attorney Miles Hannan, who has been practicing law in Valdosta for more than 30 years. She has a B.S. in psychology from Valdosta State University.