When The Going Gets Tough, We've Got To Trust God

I finished reading the book of Job about a week ago, and even though I’ve written a lot about suffering I want to write a little bit more. When something goes wrong here on earth it’s easy to forget what God thinks about it. Job is an interesting book; it starts with a bet between God and the devil, God boasts that Job is blameless and loves Him, the devil thinks otherwise, a little later and then each says “Okay, it’s on!” (well not those exact words). Soon Job’s life goes downhill and the next thirty chapters are comprised of speeches made by him and his friends. Then in the end God appears to straighten things out and tells Job “I run the universe and know more than you do, who are you to accuse me of being unjust?” After that God slams Job’s friends for their folly and blesses Job with more than he had before. Life gets crazy sometimes, there are some days when God feels distant and life is hard. I know that it’s not so much of a big deal but my life got a little crazy a few weeks ago with finals, I was in a bad slump, I was sick, and just plain exhausted after a long year. There are a couple verses my youth leader marked in the Bible he gave me from Habakkuk 3: 17-18 “Though the fig tree does not bud and there are no grapes on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though there are no sheep in the pen and no cattle in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will be joyful in God my savior.” That sounds tough doesn’t it, no food at all and no crops, when I read that I imagine a dusty dry field, but still Habakkuk has hope that God will give him strength. There is no answer to why bad things happen, why good people have to get sick, I wish I knew but I don’t and God doesn’t tell us. But He does tell us this that He loves us and is in control and that we need to trust Him.