Silas
Beloved of All
Thank you for sharing your heart so openly and for allowing others to stand with you in prayer during this long waiting season. The weight you are carrying is understandable. You have pursued this opportunity faithfully for many months, you have walked through several interviews, and you carry the memory of a previous offer that was taken away. When so much rests on one decision for you and your family, it is natural for confidence to waver and for anxiety to rise.
There is help for this kind of moment in the story of Job. That book is counted among the poetry books of Scripture, and it reaches back to very early times, perhaps to the days of Abraham. Though cultures and times have changed greatly since then, the deep needs and questions Job faced are the same ones we face today.
Scripture pulls back the curtain and shows a conversation in heaven that Job and his friends could not see. God spoke well of Job as a man who was upright, who loved God and turned away from evil. At the same time the adversary had been watching Job closely, studying him and forming a theory about him, that his faithfulness was only because God had placed a hedge of blessing around him. With permission, that hedge was tested and Job lost much, not because he had done wrong, but because God was allowing his trust to be proven.
When Job sat in pain and confusion, friends came to comfort him, but their comfort failed. They assumed that trouble must mean hidden sin and told him to simply get right with God and all would be well. Their counsel added to his burden. Job did not understand his circumstances and he cried out with honest grief and questions. Yet in all of this he did not turn against God or accuse Him without cause. He kept his integrity and voiced the faith that has strengthened many since, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
A right relationship with God is not shown by a life without problems. It is shown by complete trust and complete commitment when we do not understand what He is doing. We have all known something of Job's confusion, and in those times God often brings us to a simple place where He says, trust Me. That is not always easy to hear, because we want answers and clarity. But He understands what we are going through and He has not forsaken us. What happened to Job was recorded for our benefit, so we would know that God sees, He cares, and in the end He works with purpose and mercy.
Your desire to trust the Lord with all your heart and not lean on your own understanding is the right prayer. That is where peace is found.
We pray now for you as the final decision draws near. We ask that the Lord would grant you favor in the eyes of those who will decide, and that what is true about your experience, abilities, character and the conversations you have had would be remembered clearly and fairly. We pray that every discussion and approval needed would be ordered according to His perfect will and timing, and that He would establish the work of your hands as Psalm 90:17 says, May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us, establish the work of our hands for us.
We also pray for your heart in the waiting. May God replace anxiety with His peace, discouragement with hope, and uncertainty with confidence in His provision. May He guard you from leaning on your own understanding and help you to acknowledge Him in all your ways. If this door is the path He has prepared for you, we ask boldly that He would open it. If not, we ask that He would make that clear as well and keep you faithful, trusting Him regardless of the outcome, knowing that He who calls you to trust Him is faithful to lead you.
May the Lord keep you steadfast, remind you that He sees and knows your situation fully, and give you quiet confidence that He is at work even when you cannot see how.
There is help for this kind of moment in the story of Job. That book is counted among the poetry books of Scripture, and it reaches back to very early times, perhaps to the days of Abraham. Though cultures and times have changed greatly since then, the deep needs and questions Job faced are the same ones we face today.
Scripture pulls back the curtain and shows a conversation in heaven that Job and his friends could not see. God spoke well of Job as a man who was upright, who loved God and turned away from evil. At the same time the adversary had been watching Job closely, studying him and forming a theory about him, that his faithfulness was only because God had placed a hedge of blessing around him. With permission, that hedge was tested and Job lost much, not because he had done wrong, but because God was allowing his trust to be proven.
When Job sat in pain and confusion, friends came to comfort him, but their comfort failed. They assumed that trouble must mean hidden sin and told him to simply get right with God and all would be well. Their counsel added to his burden. Job did not understand his circumstances and he cried out with honest grief and questions. Yet in all of this he did not turn against God or accuse Him without cause. He kept his integrity and voiced the faith that has strengthened many since, though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.
A right relationship with God is not shown by a life without problems. It is shown by complete trust and complete commitment when we do not understand what He is doing. We have all known something of Job's confusion, and in those times God often brings us to a simple place where He says, trust Me. That is not always easy to hear, because we want answers and clarity. But He understands what we are going through and He has not forsaken us. What happened to Job was recorded for our benefit, so we would know that God sees, He cares, and in the end He works with purpose and mercy.
Your desire to trust the Lord with all your heart and not lean on your own understanding is the right prayer. That is where peace is found.
We pray now for you as the final decision draws near. We ask that the Lord would grant you favor in the eyes of those who will decide, and that what is true about your experience, abilities, character and the conversations you have had would be remembered clearly and fairly. We pray that every discussion and approval needed would be ordered according to His perfect will and timing, and that He would establish the work of your hands as Psalm 90:17 says, May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us, establish the work of our hands for us.
We also pray for your heart in the waiting. May God replace anxiety with His peace, discouragement with hope, and uncertainty with confidence in His provision. May He guard you from leaning on your own understanding and help you to acknowledge Him in all your ways. If this door is the path He has prepared for you, we ask boldly that He would open it. If not, we ask that He would make that clear as well and keep you faithful, trusting Him regardless of the outcome, knowing that He who calls you to trust Him is faithful to lead you.
May the Lord keep you steadfast, remind you that He sees and knows your situation fully, and give you quiet confidence that He is at work even when you cannot see how.
