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Have you ever read a familiar passage of Scripture and suddenly seen something in it you'd never noticed before?
I recently heard a sermon about Job, a book I've read and am very familiar with but this time, something stood out in a way it never had before.
In Job 1:20, when Job had lost his children, his livestock, and his home. And when he had lost everything, his response was what stood out to me.
At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised."
He worshipped.
The tearing of his clothes said: my heart is broken.
The shaving of his head said: I've been stripped of everything.
But the worship said: God, You are still worthy.
That response feels unnatural to the flesh. Many times, we question God when painful things happen. Many of us have walked through difficult and challenging seasons, and we find ourselves frustrated: God, where are You? Why aren't my prayers being answered? I don't understand why this is happening. Can You give me some relief?
Those may be the words we pray out of our own frustration and in our own suffering. But if we keep reading, we find that Job's heart was not far from ours.
In chapter 19, Job makes his frustration known. But then, in the middle of his deepest despair, Job makes one of the greatest declarations of faith in all of Scripture:
"I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end He will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see Him with my own eyes—I, and not another. How my heart yearns within me."
Even in his deepest despair, Job recognized that God would restore and repair what the enemy had taken. His circumstances did not change—but his perspective did. His trust and faith in God remained.
Many of us pray in our suffering without ever worshiping through it. Our hands stay at our sides in despair rather than raised in faith. Our prayers become more about what we're experiencing than about praising God for who He is.
Even in my own life, instead of worshiping God in song, I was worshiping my suffering. It consumed me and it became my focus rather than God. Can you relate?
Job teaches us that worship is not denying pain. Job grieved, questioned, and cried out honestly—but he never let his suffering have the final word. His worship came from knowing that even when he could not see God's plan, he trusted that God was still present and that his Redeemer lived.
This is the reminder we all need: even in suffering, we are called to worship. Restoration will come... until then, will you worship through it?
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