Allowing Adversity to Change Your Perspectiveናሙና

Knowing God

Job thought he knew God. He was a faithful servant—God Himself lauded him so (Job 1:8). Job trusted deeply in God and cared about his Maker immensely, so he thought he must know Him well.

Throughout the book of Job, Job's faithfulness never wavers, but his knowledge does. What he thinks he knows is not the full extent of who God is. The end of this lengthy trial begins when Job finally realizes he does not know God as well as he thought.

In Job 40:4, Job confesses, “I am vile.” This phrase could also be translated as “I am small.” Job went from thinking he could win an argument with God to saying, in essence, “You, God, are bigger than I knew.” God is overwhelming. He is immense. When Job understands how vast God is—how unable he is to fully know God, how small he is compared to the Maker of all things—he relents. He stops trying to question God’s ways. He realizes they are higher than anything he can comprehend (Job 42:2–3).

Knowing God means realizing He is far beyond us (Isaiah 55:8–9). It means realizing we might not be able to recognize His benevolent intent through all the fog of difficult circumstances. God transcends our reason and our circumstances. He is present in both but contained by neither.

We are called not to figure God out but to trust Him—to believe that He has our best interest at heart, even when that seems impossible to fathom. To live in the fullness of life, we must acknowledge that God is God, and we are not. We are not equals at a negotiating table, nor does He owe us any kind of explanation. He is up to “more than we can ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). And no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor heart imagined what “God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

As Job put it: “I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. . . . But now my eye sees You” (Job 42:3, 5).

Lord, open my eyes, that I might see and trust You.

Yellow Balloons explores the far-reaching applications and impact of just one of the Servant Leadership tools: the power of perspective to transform people and organizations. The Yellow Balloons Devotionals are a daily reminder of the great opportunities of life, connecting age-old biblical truths with our modern-day lives in a way that is simple, practical, and easy to understand. If you are interested in getting a free copy of the Yellow Balloons book and additional devotional resources, visit https://yellowballoons.net/