Job 40: Long Blog Alert!

“Are you trying to prove that I am unjust—to put me in the wrong and yourself in the right? Are you as strong as I am? Can your voice thunder as loud as mine? If so, stand up in your honor and pride; clothe yourself with majesty and glory. Look at those who are proud; pour out your anger and humble them. Yes, look at them and bring them down; crush the wicked where they stand. Bury them all in the ground; bind them in the world of the dead. Then I will be the first to praise you and admit that you won the victory yourself.” ‭‭Job‬ ‭40‬:‭8‬–‭14‬ ‭GNT‬‬

Y’all, I sat with Job 40 for quite a while yesterday. I kept rereading it—different translations—and I couldn’t quite put my finger on what I was feeling. The more time I spent with it, the more clarity came. What I felt yesterday I would like a to call a wrestle, If you will.

On days like this, I find myself praying, “Lord, what are You trying to reveal to me today? What are You revealing about Yourself? Help me!”

God’s words to Job are direct—there’s no denying that. I can only imagine how uncomfortable this must have been for Job. God doesn’t explain Job’s suffering. He doesn’t answer the why. Instead, He asks questions that immediately reposition us into reverence—questions that refocus our attention on His power and authority: Are you trying to put Me in the wrong so that you can be right? Do you have My strength? My voice? My ability to judge perfectly? This is where it really started to click for me—God essentially says, If you can do what I do—carry justice, humble the proud, defeat evil without error—then I’ll step back and applaud you. This is the moment I realized what was gnawing at me. It's all beginning to make sense friend, lean in: This passage isn’t about rebellion. Job didn’t turn his back on God. He certainly stayed loyal, and I'd like to believe I would do the same. What I saw in this confrontation with Job was something more subtle.

Am I the only one who is constantly asking God to explain things to me? I plead for Him to give more clarity Into a situation, etc. Clearly I want Him to help me understand. I learned a long time ago that "knowledge is power." If knowledge is power, Is acquiring knowledge wrong? Of course it isn't!

It's in the "needing to know" and allowing the nagging sense that I have to get some answers or I won't be okay. It's in the demanding of answers during the times when Im most frustrated and even feeling hopeless.

Pride doesn’t always look loud or arrogant. Sometimes it looks responsible, capable, and well-intentioned. Pride often lives quietly in self-reliance—the belief that if I can just understand enough, analyze enough, figure it out enough, then things will be okay. Friend that's just it: that's not surrender.

This underlying curiosity, this constant need to know, if I’m not careful, will hold me hostage in self-reliance and pride.

That’s the opposite of where I want to be. I want to live surrendered.

Our deep desire to know all things and figure all things out—even spiritually—can be rooted in ego. That's where we start to believe we are like God.

It’s the smallest seed of believing we are like God. It's as if we can just gain enough clarity, enough control, enough understanding, then we’ll be okay. AND—that’s a dangerous place for someone like me.

I am capable. I am independent. I am disciplined. I am used to carrying weight and responsibility. Ive been a leader most of my life. Im also a recovering perfectionist and people pleaser so self-reliance has served me well in many areas of life. However self-reliance does not serve me well in my relationship with the Lord.

God wasn’t shaming Job. He was restoring order and perspective. He was reminding Job—and me—that trust does not require understanding. Faith does not demand explanation and humility is not passive weakness; it is active alignment with Truth. I live with Lyme disease. I want to plan, schedule, and stay ten steps ahead—yet I am daily learning to surrender to my health. I’ve adopted two children who are now being reunified with their mother—such a blessing and such a heartbreak all at once. The more I surrender the more it all falls into place as it should and the more peace I have. Isn't interesting the peace comes in the surrender. I have to apply this in this season of singleness I find myself in and In parenting teen children. The more I surrender the more I gain confidence in the surrender!

What if the challenges we face aren’t about something we did wrong, but simply the reality of living in a fallen world? What if the unknown isn’t God being distant, but an invitation to deeper surrender—to live yoked to Christ each day?

For me, that looks like a close, intimate relationship with my Creator. One rooted in dependence as I walk through the good, the hard, the painful, and the beautiful. The difficult seasons aren’t punishments—they’re invitations to lean into the One who holds it all. Whew. What a revelation for me today.

Today wasn’t about learning something new. It was about more surrender. More of Him. Less of me.

On days like today what moves me most, is how God breeds revelation through the Word. It’s not always about answers. It’s about relationship, surrender and deeper Intimacy. Basically it's anything but self-reliance.