“I think I’m going through a questioning phase right now. Like I believe God is who he says he is. I do. I guess I just don’t understand why some people seem to have perfect lives where nothing bad ever happens, and other people seem to walk under the proverbial rain cloud.” – Countdown, Lynette Eason
Have you ever gone through a period like this? One where you know God is good–intellectually–but it doesn’t seem to pan out in real life.
You can quote what the Bible says about God, but your life has been so filled with struggle and pain, you wonder if maybe you misunderstood.
Or maybe it just doesn’t apply to you.
Maybe you have a friend or family member who’s struggling to believe God is good…
In either case, I’ve been there. And sometimes it seems as if all you can do is ask questions.
Why did this happen, God?
Why are You not answering?
Is this supposed to be my new normal?
There are many characters in the Bible who walked through a hard time, but none like Job, whose life we get a front-row seat to.
Job lost everything: wealth, children, health…even his wife started acting like a stranger.
It made Job question everything.
He wondered what he’d done to be treated so harshly by the Almighty.
He begged for a chance to plead his case, to prove his innocence.
We read chapter after chapter of Job’s complaints, and because we know how his story ends, we may get annoyed at his narrative.
We may want to flip forward to the part of the story where God restored him.
But here’s the thing: Job didn’t know how his story ended. Like us, he had to walk through every hard moment.
He had to feel all the feelings and think all the thoughts. They made him question why things were happening. And why they were happening to him.
Maybe that’s you right now. You’re going through a questioning period. You know God’s good, but the things happening to you are so hard that you wonder if God is paying attention.
Your situation is so difficult that you wonder why God is taking so long to act…if He’s even going to intercede on your behalf.
Here’s another lesson we can learn from Job: our questions don’t limit who God is. Instead, our questions can open us up to receive the truth that God is good.
Our questions can open us to remember that God hears our cries.
Our questions are an invitation to sit in God’s presence and allow Him to minister to our souls.
Do you have questions for God?
Hebrews 4:16 issues an invitation for us to come boldly before the throne of grace where we can receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.
Bring your questions to God, friend, He’s waiting to hear from you.
About Countdown (Extreme Measures Book #4)
A stalker who wants to finish what he started. A US Marshal who’s vowed to protect his charge. And one woman who is determined to put the past in the past.
Flight paramedic Raina Price has been running so long it’s hard to stop. To escape a dangerous stalker, she changed her name and disappeared, building a new life with the help of a friend from her time in juvie. It feels good to put her energies into saving people’s lives, but because her stalker was never found, she’s never stopped looking over her shoulder. And one can only run so far before the past finally catches up.
US Marshal Vincent Corelli’s job is to hunt down fugitives and protect those who are assigned to him. When Raina is almost killed right in front of him, he vows to protect her at all costs–whether it’s his job or not. Together they work to solve the mystery of Raina’s past. But someone is out to make sure Raina doesn’t live long enough to do it.
Countdown is the breathless conclusion to USA Today bestselling author Lynette Eason’s thrilling Extreme Measures series.
Purchase Countdown on Amazon | Christianbook