I am reading in Job, chapter 23, and I will summarize his situation:

Job was a righteous and God-fearing man. But God gave Satan permission to test him. And then most all of his servants, and his livestock, and all of his children were put to death. But Job’s response was, “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.” And through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God. But Satan was not finished with Job. So next he smote Job with sore boils from the sole of his foot to the crown on his head. Yet in all of this Job did not sin with his lips.

At first his friends had compassion on him, and they sat silent with him for seven days and seven nights. But Job was in such pain and suffering that he now wished he had never been born. And then his friends began accusing him falsely that the reason all this calamity had come into his life had to be that he had committed a grievous sin against God. But Job denied that he had sinned against the Lord, and he asked them to show him how he had sinned, if indeed he had sinned against God as they accused him of doing.

Although we do not know the exact number of days (I don’t, anyway) that Job suffered, it apparently was not short-lived. And his friends continued to try to prove to him that his suffering had to be a result of sin in his life. And that only served to increase Job’s suffering. And I do know what it is like to suffer emotionally, mentally, and physically, due to many things which I have had to endure over my lifetime. And I do know what it is like to be accused falsely of what I did not do, too. So I empathize with Job in his suffering.

And what is the worst of the worst is when we feel as though God is not there, when we can’t hear him speaking to us in our minds and in our hearts, as though he is silent when we need to hear from him the most. And that is where Job was:

“Behold, I go forward but He is not there,
And backward, but I cannot perceive Him;
9 When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him;
He turns on the right, I cannot see Him.
10 “But He knows the way I take;
When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
11 “My foot has held fast to His path;
I have kept His way and not turned aside.
12 “I have not departed from the command of His lips;
I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.
13 “But He is unique and who can turn Him?
And what His soul desires, that He does.
14 “For He performs what is appointed for me,
And many such decrees are with Him.
15 “Therefore, I would be dismayed at His presence;
When I consider, I am terrified of Him.
16 “It is God who has made my heart faint,
And the Almighty who has dismayed me,
17 But I am not silenced by the darkness,
Nor deep gloom which covers me. (Job 23:8-17 NASB1995)

More than once I have been accused of something I did not do, and by some pastors and elders. And I am not claiming that I have led a perfect life. I had my down time. But I am speaking of times when I was walking in obedience to my Lord, as I am now, and when I examined my own heart before the Lord, and in the study of the Scriptures, and I knew without a doubt that the accusations against me were false. And so I spoke in full honesty in my own defense only to be treated with disdain and rejection and disbelief, in return.

And during such times as these it can feel as though we have been abandoned by God, when we cannot hear him, and he appears to be silent. And that can be very unsettling. Many times I have prayed, “Lord, let me hear your voice!” And sometimes he remained silent, for it was to test me. And other times I did hear his calm reassurance that I am safe in his hands. And he gave me the courage to speak in my own defense, much like the apostle Paul and Peter and John and others spoke in their own defense.

But we must be very careful in times like these, when we are being tested, that we do not lose faith, and that we do not become bitter and angry. There were times in my life when I did respond that way, which was wrong. It was sinful. But I repented, and God forgave me. And he got me back on the right path. So, be careful when you are being tested that you don’t fall. Be careful when you can’t hear God that you don’t deny him and run away from him out of fear. Keep the faith! And keep obeying our Lord until the very end.

[Matthew 5:10-12; Matthew 10:16-25,34-39; Matthew 24:9-14; Luke 6:22-23; Luke 12:49-53; Luke 21:12-17; John 15:18-21; Ephesians 6:10-20; Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 11:1-3; Revelation 12:17; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:1-13]

Why So Downcast?

Based off Psalm 42
An Original Work / December 21, 2012
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love

Why so downcast, O my soul,
And why so disturbed now within me?
Put your hope in Jesus Christ,
For I will praise His name.
He’s my Savior and my God,
So therefore I’ll remember Him through
Storms and tempests sweeping o’er me.
Still I’ll praise His name.
Put your hope in God.

By day the Lord sends forth His love.
In the night His song is with me.
I pray to the God of my life.
I will praise His name. I say to God my Rock,
“Why must I be called to suffer this way?”
Foes attack me; Satan sneering.
Still I’ll praise my God.
Put your hope in Him.

As a deer pants for the waters,
So my soul pants for You, O God.
My soul thirsts for God who’s living.
When can I meet Him?
My tears have been my food at night,
When men say, “So, where is your God?”
I pour out my soul to my God.
I’ll still praise His name.
Shout with joy to Him.

Trials Which Test Our Faith
An Original Work / March 2, 2026
Christ’s Free Servant, Sue J Love