A while back, my mom and I planned to go for a walk together… but then life happened and I wasn’t ready on time. So, as I hurriedly wrapped up my tasks, I told her to go ahead. I’d catch up, I assured her. The only problem was that when I finally did set out, I couldn’t find her.
You see, my mom could have headed in about three different directions from our starting point and I didn’t know which path she was on.
First, I tried using my intuition to figure it out. I mused, “If I was my mom, which way would I go?” but that didn’t work. So then, I tried walking a few minutes in each direction, looking for signs of her in the distance. Unfortunately, that didn’t work, either. So finally, I just committed to a path and walked. I never did run into her, though.
When we reconnected later, we laughed about our two solo walks and agreed to coordinate better in future. Plus, I discovered I actually had been on the right path—I had just been trailing so far behind her that I never caught up. Everything worked out in the end. But I have to admit: in the moment, as I looked in all directions without finding even a hint of my mother, it was frustrating. And at one point, I even began to worry.
It reminds me (in a small way) of how Job described his search for God in Job 23:8-9. He said,
“If I go east, he is not there. If I go west, I can’t find him. He works to the north, but I can’t see him. He turns south, but I can’t catch a glimpse of Him.”
Does this sound familiar?
Sometimes, when we go through seasons of trial like Job did, we just can’t seem to find God anywhere in our suffering. Yet, Job is inspiring because, in the midst of expressing grief over his experiences, he also said this about God in verse 10:
“But He knows the way that I take. When He has tried me, I will come out like gold.”
I love these verses because, in them, Job didn’t attempt to explain away the pain of his suffering. Instead, he acknowledged the truth of that pain and then came alongside it with what was also true.
The truths he highlights here must have given him hope in a hard time. And because they’re also true for believers today, they can give us hope, as well.
Truth #1: We may not always see God, but we are always seen by Him.
Job admitted that no matter which way he looked, he couldn’t find God in his circumstances. And in the moments when we experience a similar inability to sense God’s presence and understand what He’s doing in our lives, we often start to wonder:
Has God forgotten or abandoned me?
Or have I driven Him away with something I’ve done?
But Job’s words in verse 10 speaks to both of those concerns. He says of God, “But He knows the way that I take.”
That reveals two things:
First, God has not abandoned us. Even now, He’s closer than we think—close enough to know all the details of our lives and be aware of everything we’re going through.
He sees our physical ailments and our heartaches. He takes note of our disappointed efforts and the utter exhaustion that plagues us at times.
The truth is, we don’t always get to “feel God.” And we don’t always get to understand His ways, because sometimes His hand is intentionally hidden from us.
But what’s most important is that God sees us through it all. Though we can’t feel Him, the God who secures us is attentive and active in our lives.
Second, our inability to sense God doesn’t necessarily mean we’re on the wrong path.
You know, leading up to this chapter, Job’s friends had repeatedly accused Job of earning his suffering. They not-so-subtly suggested his trials must be the result of sin in his life. Yet Scripture declared they were wrong in their assessment.
So, just because we’re suffering and cannot sense God’s presence, we don’t need to automatically assume we’re in the wrong. Sometimes—just like I experienced on my walk that day—we can be on the right path, despite not being able to spot God in the moment.
Maybe our inability to sense God doesn’t mean we’re on the wrong path. Maybe our understanding is just trailing behind what God is doing and our vision simply hasn’t caught up to the places He is working.
And if we do have concerns about the kind of path we’re on, we can just lay ourselves open before the One who, as Job said, knows our ways—and also knows our hearts. He can both reveal our sins and redirect our wrong turns.
Truth #2: Today we are tried, but soon we’ll be transformed.
When we’re in the midst of a trial, sometimes our pain is all we can see. That’s why it’s comforting to know that God sees what we’re going through.
But it’s even more comforting when we realize: our suffering is not all God sees. He also sees the good He’s going to bring from it.
Job said, “When He has tried me, I will come out like gold.”
Through our suffering, God is refining us:
He’s untangling our hearts from worldly things. He’s strengthening our trust in His truth over our feelings. He’s preparing us for what’s coming next and He’s turning us into the people He always meant us to be.
He’s making us golden.
And even though we’ve heard these truths before, sometimes we need to be reminded: Our suffering is a beautifying tool in the hand of our God. We will not walk out of our trials the same way we entered them. And that is a good thing.
So, as we walk down the twisty path of life, may we keep walking through suffering and through those moments when we can’t feel God’s presence like usual.
Perhaps, we’ll spot evidence of God around the next bend—or maybe we won’t understand what He’s doing until we reach home and connect with Him in heaven—but either way, we can know:
God sees us and He is transforming us, even when we can’t see it.
This devotion is based on one of the Scriptures from my reading plan: “Wisdom from Above” which covers Proverbs, Ecclesiastes & Job. To receive a copy of the reading plan (and future reading plans), sign up for the email list below. Hope you’ll follow along!
Written by Paige K. Burhans
©2024 Paige K. Burhans
Scriptures taken from the World English Bible. Public Domain.
