Trust Me!

Trust Me!

by Patricia Dailey
Senior Pastor, Bethel Revival Center
43 Norwood St.
Everett, MA 02149

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Job 23:1-2
Then Job answered and said, Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning (read 23:1-14).

We know from the Scriptures that Job was a man who loved God, eschewing — having nothing to do with — evil (see Job 1:8). God said he was a perfect and upright man. And in the trial he was facing, he had a spiritual desire: longing to find God.

This trial hit Job hard. He lost all his children, all his animals; and then Satan was permitted to touch his body, smiting him with boils from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. What an awful ordeal.

Anybody who has ever had any boils knows how miserable even one boil can be. Imagine being smitten with boils from the top of your head to the soles of your feet! What a painful thing to have to go through.

Job said that his complaint was bitter and his stroke was heavier than his groaning. He found himself in a bitter and hard trial, with times of fretting about finding God.

David's Hard Trial

Psalm 55:1,2
Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not Thyself from my supplication. Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise

We want to look at David now. In this psalm we can see that he was restless. He faced a hard trial and was mourning because of it.

There are times when we may cry or feel pain and hurt. We all feel those things when we're going through such a time. We might cry because of the hurt and pain and suffering we are going through, but that doesn't mean we don't have faith in God.

When we have faith in God, we need to commit ourselves unto the Lord's hands — commit everything about the trial into His hands, knowing there's not a thing that we can do in ourselves.

Jeremiah's Trial

Lamentations 3:7
He hath hedged me about, that I cannot get out: He hath made my chain heavy.

Jeremiah was in a situation he couldn't get out of, and we might find ourselves in a situation where we cannot get out of it. We just have to wait until God sets us free, until He brings us out of what we are facing. No matter what we do, we cannot change the situation. Yes, we can pray. We can stand and believe and trust God; but until His set time, we will not be able to come out of the trial.

If you find yourself in a situation like this, you need to pour out your complaint to the Lord. That's the best place to take your complaints. Instead of complaining and bogging others down with your problems, take them to the Lord . . . and leave them there.

He has put Scriptures into His Word that are words of encouragement. He lets us know it's right to pour out our complaint unto Him because He is the only one who can help us. He knows you're human and He understands what you're facing.

Sometimes, He may use those who will do kind deeds to try and help us during such a time. They have an understanding and can feel for us when we're going through something like this, and they will do what they can to help out.

Whatever one sows they will also reap. If they sow kindness and love, and do whatever is in their power to help another who is going through a terrible time, you can rest assured they will reap what they have sown. One day, they might be facing a difficult time and see God really moving by sending others to care for them.

I thank God we have these precious Scriptures to show us this fact. God will not overlook you when you find yourself in a horrible trial: He will raise up someone who will stand with you, someone who will encourage you, and someone to help out in whatever way wherever they can.

Facing a Mental Conflict

Now, David was grieving; he was restless; and he had a mental conflict that caused him to be sorrowful, mourning over this thing that he was going through. We can see here a great man of God who also had quite a time going through this period of his life.

We can see it's not unusual for someone to react like this when facing a hard time, and especially when it's a long period of time.

David went through a trial for a long period of time; Job went through a long hard trial. He mentions about going through this for months and months, but we don't know really how long he faced this horrible time.

The main thing in facing such a hard time is to keep your faith in God and in His promises, knowing that He is going to bring you through. According to the Word of God, He will bring you through unto victory. He brought David through. He brought Job through. And He'll bring you through.

Now, we read in psalms of another man who faced similar hard times:

Asaph's Trial

Psalm 77:1,2 A Psalm of Asaph.
I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and He gave ear unto me. In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.

Asaph had a sore that just would not quit running, and his soul refused to be comforted.

You might know of someone who is in such a difficult, long, hard trial. It is a very sorrowful time for them, and, no matter how much you try to comfort them, their soul will not be comforted. Only God can comfort such a one.

There are many times, though, when people who are facing a long, hard, difficult period of time can be comforted by what others do for them. It helps them to know that someone has a genuine love for them and is standing right there by them to fight the battle with them: praying and fasting, and doing things to comfort and encourage.

Psalm 77:3,4
I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah. Thou holdest mine eyes waking: I am so troubled that I cannot speak.

That word Selah means to pause and think on. We need to think about this: I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed.

The trial Asaph found himself in crushed him; it overwhelmed him. This sore that wouldn't stop running seemed to overcome him.

I can see why he would be troubled. In a long time of having a hard trial, you wonder why it's taking so long. And you do get troubled: "Why is it taking so long for God to come on the scene?"

In my own life, I've gone through many things that were difficult, but God brought me through each time. I didn't always come through right away, but I did always come through. God has been so faithful down through the years — and He is still faithful. He will not suffer (allow) His faithfulness to fail, nor alter the thing that is gone out of His mouth (see Psalm 89:33,34).

God is working in us, in ways we may not always be aware of. He is trying to get us prepared for what He has for us as His people; and if we have surrendered all to God, we will rejoice in the end.

When we are sincere with Him, we will see the great blessing when it comes. We will be able to say, "It's been worth it all." We'll thank God that He enabled us to hang right in there, not turning from Him.

Yes, it certainly will be worth it all when we see what God has really done through the hard, difficult trials we went through.

We must realize that we were born unto trouble (see Job 5:7). We cannot escape troubles in this life. Having trials is common to all people. But we who are God's people can turn to Him in our trials and find Him an ever-present help. We have Almighty God — the living, true God — whom we can call upon in time of trouble. He will help us and give us strength and grace to endure what we have to go through.

The sinner has no one to call on. They lean on the arm of flesh, which will only fail them.

Sometimes, in the midst of a long hard trial, we say, "I can't take any more. I can't handle any more." But the more we say that, the more we find ourselves having to take.

We see that Asaph was troubled. He complained, and his spirit was overwhelmed. The trial crushed him, overcoming him.

But, thank God, these accounts are in the Scriptures to let us know that the way we feel in our trials, the things we say, are no different than what these men of old said. We find when they were going through similar hard trials, they said just what we have said.

God Was Hidden from Job

Job 23:8,9
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

This is a hard situation with Job. He had been in touch with God but now finds himself in this overwhelming trial.

You know, sometimes when you go through hard trials like Job went through — not saying you will have boils or lose your family and everything you've got; yet, you are facing a horrible trial in your life — you can try to pray, and sometimes you can't even feel the presence of God. But you've got to realize from the Scriptures that we don't walk by feelings, neither do we walk by sight, but we walk by faith.

Not Sight, nor Feelings, but by Faith

This is one thing we've got to really take to heart, that our faith doesn't depend on feeling God's presence.

Just because you don't feel Him, do know that He is with you. This is one thing you can stand on, for He has promised to never leave you, nor to forsake you (see Hebrews 13:5).

If we went by the way things looked, Satan would put fear on us. This is where people get it wrong: They go by looks instead of by faith.

We must put that away and begin to walk by faith — not going by what we see or by what we feel. We need to have genuine faith in God, walking by faith, knowing that all things are in His hands and that He does all things well and has everything in and under His control.

God Knows All about Us

Psalm 139:2-4
Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether.

God knows all about us, and this is what we want to see. Some people say they will keep quiet about what they feel about someone, yet they are thinking that thing they won't say. God hears that thought. He knows the words that you had in mind yet wouldn't speak.

Nahum 1:7
The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him.

Yes, God knows those who trust in Him, and in the day of trouble He won't forsake them. He is their stronghold, their place of safety. When we place ourselves into His hands, when we're in trouble, we can rest assured that He will take care of us because we trust Him. When we take hold of the Scriptures and place our trust in the Lord, we will have genuine faith in Him, and nothing will be able to cause us to fear, doubt, or worry.

Pure Gold Tried in the Fire

Job 23:10
But He knoweth the way that I take: when He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

This is what we should really desire when we are tried, that in the end of the trial we would come forth as gold, spiritually refined. Yes, if we let the Lord work in us during the testing times, during the trials and troubles we go through in this life, we will come forth as pure gold.

I Peter 1:7
That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ

Gold is purified in fire, being put in the fire seven times. Who knows how many times we may have to go through a trial before we are as purified gold! We may have to go through the fire seven times.

Job knew he would come forth as pure gold when he came through the horrible trial he was facing. By the time he was through with that trial, he would be spiritually refined. All the things that would be in him as dross would be taken away, leaving just pure gold.

This is what we should want: to be as pure gold. We want to be pure in heart, because only the pure in heart will see God. We should be saying, "Lord, I don't really want to go through trials, but, Lord, I want to be pure in heart."

If you say this type of thing to the Lord and you mean business, you can rest assured that you will go through fiery trials. It's up to you whether or not you're going to let God work to bring all that dross to the surface, all those things that shouldn't be in you, where He can remove it and bring you forth with a pure heart.

I Peter 4:12
Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you

It's not a strange thing to have fiery trials. What about the three Hebrew boys? They were tried by fire. They went into that fiery furnace, and God brought them out.

Isaiah 24:15a
Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the fires . . .

This is pretty hard to do sometimes. But if we begin to glorify God in the fire, I believe we will find that we will have more peace and joy in our trials, knowing that God will bring us through as He did the three Hebrew boys. Now, they weren't going to bow, weren't going to bend . . . and they weren't going to burn, because God was with them and would bring them forth out of the fire without even the smell of smoke.

Trials Work for Us

II Corinthians 4:17
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory

Paul wrote this to the Corinthian church, but know that he also was writing it to us. We look at Paul's life and see all the hardships he went through: the beatings, the stoning, the shipwrecks, the clubbing, the stripes. He went through a lot of suffering because he said he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had stripes on his back. His body was scarred from whippings.

Yes, Paul knew what he was talking about. He went through all of this, yet he could say it worked for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

I can see what he is saying here. All that we go through, no matter how hard it may be, cannot compare to that future, eternal glory that awaits us. So we thank God.

We think we have it bad. We think we're going through a hard time. But we should know that it is just for a moment in comparison to eternity.

Don't Get Bitter

Job 23:11
My foot hath held His steps, His way have I kept, and not declined.

In the midst of the trials, Job didn't let his foot slip; he didn't go backwards; he did not backslide. Sometimes people get bitter toward God through the horrible experiences they are going through and they backslide. But, no matter what happens, we must not allow ourselves to get bitter toward God.

God is a good God. He knows what He's doing, even if we don't know. He has a plan and a purpose that He wants to bring about in our lives. So, we don't want to get bitter with God because of something that happens to us along life's journey. Nor should we be bitter toward anyone else.

Job 23:12
Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

Job was stedfast, unmovable. He loved his God. The Lord was precious to Job. Even though he was going through a hard time in his life, he wasn't going to turn away from His God. He didn't backslide over all that happened to him. One thing about it: Job loved the truth. He loved God's commandments.

I Thessalonians 3:3
That no man should be moved by these afflictions: for yourselves know that we are appointed thereunto.

We shouldn't be moved by the things that happen to us, moved by the hard things we have to go through.

Thank God for our firm foundation: Jesus Christ and His sayings (see Matthew 7:24-27). If we weren't founded on the Rock Christ Jesus, the storms of this life would shatter our house. But because we are founded on the Rock Christ Jesus, we will not fall. We will not have to worry about falling in the time of hardships, troubles, and dark periods of time.

If you love Him and are trusting in Him, you don't have to worry about a thing. You can put it all on Him and trust Him to take care of it. He'll take you through.

You might be experiencing an inner trial that you've really been struggling with. Listen, put your trust in God. Trust Him: He'll take you through.

Job 23:11,12
My foot hath held His steps, His way have I kept, and not declined. Neither have I gone back from the commandment of His lips; I have esteemed the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.

Nahum 1:7
The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him.