When the righteous suffer

This Sabbath my pastor's sermon was about faith. It was a very good sermon. Afterward, I told him that for me the most important moment in understanding faith was when I realized that — with respect to God — the word means the same as trust, as in trusting Him to be Himself. Thinking about that may have been what caused me to link to the Hank Williams' rendition of "Farther Along" on Sunday. Today, Ray Ortlund, reflecting on the book of Job:

.... I don’t think the book of Job is about suffering as a theoretical problem — why do the righteous suffer? I think it’s about suffering as a practical problem — when (not if) the righteous suffer, what does God expect of them? And what he expects is trust. When the righteous cannot connect the realities of their experience with the truths of God, then God is calling them to trust him that there is more to it than they can see. As with Job, there is a battle being fought in the heavenlies.

Trust in God, not explanations from God, is the pathway through suffering.

The book of Job – Ray Ortlund