Halleujah Anyway

Scripture: Read Job chapter 1, 2.  Daniel chapter 3

Life never happens in a linear pattern. There are ups and downs, twists and turns, periods of darkness and light. Even if there are people who will anchor you in times of storm, the storms come and go. Sometimes they last longer than we’d expect. The only thing that we’re told is consistent in the word of God is the Lord himself. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8) So, if life at times, has us high on the mountain tops, all seems to be well, we can say that God is good. This fact still remains, when life has turned upside down and we are asking God to deliver us from the valley of the shadow of death. As the storms rage, the winds blow and there is not a light house in sight to steer us to the shore there is still one constant. As the winds blow from the east, then from the west, shifting the rains so that we are battered from all sides, there is no shelter in this storm, one constant remains. As the ship in which we find safety begins to leak and we begin to take on water, we are now sinking, all our energy is spent bailing water out as the wind from the storm continues to send the rain drops our way. As the ones on board begin to grow weary and the anthem becomes, “we’re going to perish”, “what’s the use?” The tempter draws near and whispers in our ear, no one cares, certainly not the God that you fear. Despite all this one thing remains true and constant. God is good.

Saying it, believing it and living this truth is easier said than done. Especially when we know that we have given no place to the devil in our lives. Especially when we know our lives are lived in reverence of and according to the will of God. When life serves us after the manner of Job, it becomes hard to stand firm that God is good. The scripture points us to many testimonies that show us the unyielding belief that God is good all the time and all the time God is good. One of the most powerful of these is the testimony of the three Hebrew boys. Everything about them had changed, their home, their practices, their environment, the very name they had been given as their identifier had changed.  They were steadfast in one thing though, and steadfast they would remain till the very end, “even if the Lord does not deliver us, we will not bow” (Daniel 3:18). Even if everything had changed and it had, they knew that their God had not changed, He was still good, even if he did not deliver them.

And He remains good even if He does not deliver us.