“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see you. Therefore, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”
– Job 42:5–6
What a conclusion to this book Job 42:5–6 is. The details such suffering and struggle, the struggle of faith in the middle of suffering, in Job. And after God speaks to him that he would say, come to this conclusion, “I had heard of you, but now my eyes see you.” Like I know God in a greater way than I did before all this suffering. I trust God in deeper ways now than I did even before I walked through this suffering. Oh, as we walk through suffering may God work that purpose out in our hearts and our minds.
Might we know and trust God more as a result of walking through pain, sorrow, and suffering.
God, I pray, we pray together amidst a world of suffering and trial and tribulation and hurt and pain in all kinds of different ways. God, please, please, please bring us to this conclusion. Help us to see you more, help us to know you more, help us to trust you more as a result of walking through suffering. I think about losing my dad unexpectedly to a heart attack and the hurt and the pain, sorrow that’s still in many ways fresh in my own heart and my family’s heart.
When I’d talked to my mom and God, I praise you for your faithfulness to us. I praise you for your faithfulness to my mom. I praise you for the faithfulness to me. Praise you for the ways we’ve seen you in greater ways, known you in deeper ways. Your love, your provision, your mercy, you are so sufficient. Oh God, we praise you.
Job 42:5–6 Prays For God To Help Us See More
God, I pray for this not knowing what the future holds in my life. Whatever may come my way, God, I pray you would help me to see you more, to know you more deeply. God, I pray for those who are listening right now, for those who have walked through suffering, are walking through it right now and different things just come into their minds. God, please, please, please help us to know you more, to see you more. To delight in you in greater ways, to Experience your faithfulness in more wonderful, powerful ways than ever before. God, we know, we trust, we consider. Romans 8, “Our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.”
This Verse Trusts In God and His Plan
God, we are longing for the redemption of our bodies, the removal of all sin and evil and suffering for all of eternity. God, we trust in you and we look forward to the day when after all the sin and suffering and evil and tribulation and trial and hurt and pain in this world. Revelation 22, “When we will see your face, our eyes will see you, that which we will have heard of you on that day we’ll say, “Now our eyes see you.” We’ll see you, Jesus, and enjoy you forever. We praise you. We praise you for this hope, and we pray that you’ll help us to cling to it in greater and greater and greater ways amidst trials in this world. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
