Standing in the Crossroad

It is true that life has its ups and downs. But then there are those times when calamity, misfortune and heartache seem to all pile on at once. We have all had those seasons where everything was going wrong. It seemed like no matter what we tried to do differently, everything continued to get worse. 

Our finances were collapsing and we lost our job, then our health or the health of a loved one was sorely affected. Our friends offered heartfelt consolations and occasional suggestions, but nothing seemed to work. We prayed, we fasted, we rebuked and we bound everything that we could think of, yet our circumstances continued to decline.

That is when the door opens wide for doubts to enter. This is when we question our belief in what we thought that we knew about God and what we believed to be true from reading the scriptures. We reached out to God, possibly even shouted at Him, yet it all seemed as if our Heavenly Father turned away from us. 

This season, as difficult as it is, is in fact a crossroad. It is a point where we will either move up to a higher level of faith or slide back to being a marginal Christian. It is a point where God wants us to completely surrender to Him. Even though we do not understand what is happening, or why, God wants us to place our faith, our hope and our trust in Him alone. He wants us to admit to ourselves that He is God and that we are not. 

Job had one of these dreadful seasons. While sitting in ashes, covered with sores, boils and maggots, mourning the loss of his wealth, his family and his status, he was surrounded by “friends” who tried to convince him that he must have sinned and caused God to raise a heavy hand upon him. Job defended himself vigorously and maintained his unwavering faith and belief in Almighty God

Job was at his crossroad. His deep emotional and physical pain with no healing in sight brought him to a crisis of faith. Would he stay strong in his belief in who God was or would he succumb to the “advice” of his well meaning friends? Job did not hesitate. He boldly declared his conviction in Job 13:15 where he told his friends, “Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him;” 

This is the response that God is looking for, from each of us, whenever we face a difficult season with no resolution in sight. He wants to see if we will maintain our faith in Him despite all of the unanswered prayers, all of the unanswered questions and all of the emotional confusion. Our Heavenly Father is waiting to see if we will declare in our heart and to the heavens that He is God and we are not and that though He slay me, yet I will hope in Him.

Pray for the strength to endure every challenging season and that the experience will only increase our reliance and faith in God.

Pray for discernment and wisdom whenever we are faced with challenges to our faith.

We all have had seasons where we felt like Job. We need to embrace those seasons. We need to continue to pray and seek Godly wisdom and grace. We need to refuse to give up an inch of our faith and we need to have the conviction that though God slays me, yet I will hope in Him.