Job tells the story of the frustrations of a human that battles his will against the Lord’s. We’ve been there and realized that, at some point, the Lord knows better than we. Job asked the Lord how long He would torment him. He let the Lord now all the struggles and how his family had alienated themselves, his acquaintances estranged. His closest friends forgot and detest him. But he said I know that my redeemer lives, and God restored for Job – and He does for us.

In the story of Jonah, he was furious. He lost his temper with God and went off to sulk. God put a tree over him to cool him. God sent a worm that bore into the tree and withered it away. When the sun came up God sent a hot, blistering wind and the sun beat down so hard that Jonah began to faint, ‘I’m better off dead’. God asked why he was so content one minute and angry the next about a shade tree that he did nothing to get or to keep. God asked if he could change his feelings that quickly about a tree, why couldn’t He, God Himself, change His feelings about Nineveh-a city of over 120,000 childlike people who don’t yet know right from wrong, to say nothing of all the animals.

These stories show that God’s ways are not our ways, but He always knows best. Therefore, ought we to trust Him rather than ourselves and our own opinions and faulty works and wants.

Embracing God in what He does is the best thing we can do for Him. We can’t be so well-adjusted to our culture that we don’t let Him change us from the inside out. As we hearken to His voice, we can quickly respond to it. He is the one that brings us to maturity in Him. We don’t quit in hard times; we pray all the harder. Rejoice in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer. Romans 12