Job 23:8-9
“Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:”
In the midst of Job’s trial he states that he looks for God but could not find him. He said he went forward, but God was not there. He went backward, but he could not perceive God’s presence. He turned to the left where God normally works, but still could not see God. He then turned to the right where God hides Himself, and yet Job could not see Him. Though Job could not see God, he came to the right conclusion in verse 10 when he says, “But he knoweth the way that I take…”
There are going to be times in your life when it seems as if God is nowhere to be found. There are going to be times when you wonder if God is working in your life. Trials have a way of getting us to think that we are all alone. They have a way of causing us to think that God is done with us. In spite of our feeling that God is nowhere to be found, there are some things we need to remember during these times.
First, God’s presence is not dependent upon you seeing Him. Job was concerned with seeing God in His life, and because he didn’t see Him he felt that he was all alone. You just have to remember that God’s presence is not dependent upon you seeing Him, but His presence is a promise that He will “never leave thee, nor forsake thee.” (Hebrews 13:5) All you have to know is that God promises to be there for you.
Second, just because you don’t see God working doesn’t mean that He is not working. Job said that he looked “where he doth work, but I cannot behold him:” Yet, God was working in Job’s life. In those times when you can’t see God working, you just have to trust that God is performing the promise that He is still working in your life. Philippians 1:6 promises, “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” This verse promises that God will perform His work until Jesus returns. It doesn’t matter if you see God working, He is working because He promised He would.
Third, you don’t have to feel God’s presence for God to be present. One of the mistakes Job made in these verses was that he was relying upon his senses instead of the promises of God’s Word. Friend, you can’t rely upon your senses during trials because one of the things that trials do is disturb your ability to sense. That is why you must trust God during them. That is why God says in Proverbs 3:5-6 to trust Him “in all thy ways.” We depend on our senses too much when we need to trust the Word of God and His promises.
Friend, you don’t have to see God for God to be there. If you need to see that God is there, then look at the promises of His Word and realize that He promised to be there. It doesn’t matter what you are facing in your life, God is there. You may not understand why you can see Him, feel Him and perceive His works anywhere in your life, but that doesn’t take away the fact that God is doing a work in your life. When you come to the end of the Book of Job, you see that God was there just like He is in your life right now. Stop relying on your senses and rely upon the promises of God’s Word that have never failed. Always remember that God is in your life even though you don’t see Him.