J.A. Matteson
Our confidence in what we purport to believe about God will be tested by God. "But now it has come to you, and you are impatient; it touches you, and you are dismayed" (Job 4:5). With great assurance we may strengthen others in the days of plenty and pleasure, espousing the greatness and tender mercies of God, and yet, that to which we speak is lacking the veracity of personal experience. To acknowledge is fundamentally different from knowing, it is a lower level. God intends for His children to know Him as we know the heart of a close friend. The test comes when that which we confidently acknowledge is placed in the fire of affliction. Days may turn to weeks, and weeks may turn to months, and months may turn to years, and your suffering continues, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?" is our cry (Ps. 22:1). In reply to our cry is silence, deafening quiet. And then it happens, after a protracted period of time we become spiritually depleted, exhausted, virtually unable to continue another second acknowledging the truth of God's mercies. We consider ourselves as dead, without future. It is in that moment, in that place, that it comes, when self is dead and all that remains is Jesus Christ, then we hear it, "a gentle whisper" (1 Kgs. 19:12). The end of self in merely our mental assent is what God is after, replacing acknowledgement with knowing, and the way is narrow, difficult, but glorious in its treasures. Now our words of counsel and exhortation to others possess a fresh vitality, spiritually infused with the life giving presence of one who has walked with Jesus Christ (2 Cor. 1:3-5). God restored Job and his words of wisdom became sweeter and more tender as a result of what he personally knew to be true of God and His gracious dealings with His children.
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