Does God Even Hear Me?
If I summoned him and he answered me, I do not believe he would pay attention to what I said. - Job 9.16 (CSB)
Job experienced so much pain and sorrow as he walked through his purposed season of affliction. He lost everything. His adult children were all killed on the same day. His finances were wiped out. He was afflicted with boils that left him in agony. In order to find any relief from the painful boils, “Job took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he sat among the ashes” (Job 2.8, CSB).
He was broken. He was overwhelmed with sorrow and pain. Job. The one who God described this way: “No one else on earth is like him, a man of perfect integrity, who fears God and turns away from evil” (Job 2.3, CSB). This goes completely against the false teachers of today who preach a “prosperity gospel” - that if you have enough faith God will give you wealth and health. Job was walking in faith and still experienced all that he did (read Job 1-2 to see the reason behind why all of this happened to Job. It sure seems like it happened to Job because he was so faithful to God instead of not having enough faith).
So back to Job 9.16. Do you ever feel like this? Does this thought ever take over your soul, leading you to spiral more and more toward hopelessness? Do you ever feel alone? Do you ever feel like you’re not important enough for God to actually take notice of you? Let me encourage you with these words that God shared with Moses when the time had come for Israel to be freed from their slavery to Egypt.
After a long time, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out, and their cry for help because of the difficult labor ascended to God. God heard their groaning, and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. 25 and God saw the Israelites, and God knew. - Exodus 2.23-25 (CSB)
Then the LORD said, “I have observed the misery of my people in Egypt, and have heard them crying out because of their oppressors. I know about their sufferings, and I have come down to rescue them from the power of the Egyptians and to bring them from that land to a good and spacious land,… - Exodus 3.7-8 (CSB)
Friend, God hears. God knows. God sees. And God is at work. He is doing a greater work in you through this season of affliction that is beyond your ability to see right now. There is not one moment of your day when God is not paying close attention to you.
Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I live at the eastern horizon or settle at the western limits, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night”— even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to you. - Psalm 139.7-12 (CSB)
The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, and rescues them from all their troubles. The LORD is near the brokenhearted; he saves those crushed in spirit. - Psalm 34.17-18
I love the LORD because he has heard my appeal for mercy. Because he has turned his ear to me, I will call out to him as long as I live. - Psalm 116.1-2 (CSB)
And let this sink into the depths of your soul in the midst of your suffering:
Now this is what the LORD says— the one who created you, Jacob, and the one who formed you, Israel— “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you and the rivers will not overwhelm you, When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched and the flame will not burn you. - Isaiah 43.1-2 (CSB)
So, again, let me remind you: God hears. God knows. God sees. And God is at work. Hold on to what the Scriptures reveal to us about God. Believe him and his word more than the thoughts and emotions that may be running through your mind. Hang in there and keep walking with the Lord. And as you do may this become your prayer:
LORD, hear my prayer; listen to my cries for mercy. I call on you in the day of my distress, for you will answer me. - Psalm 86.6-7 (CSB)
