“Why do you turn away from me?” Job 13:24

Sitting glaring into a crackling fire always makes me feel at peace.  Unfortunately, we don’t have a real fireplace in my house or a wood burner but I find having a crackling fire in 4K still does the trick. There’s something about the constancy of the burning flames that calms my worries and fears. Last week I was chatting to someone at church and actually caught myself saying to them, “Well, all we can do now is pray and trust God”. What??? This is something I think we say a lot – or is it just me? ALL we can do…well actually that is always ALL we can do. For some reason we feel this compelling desire to help God to do His job and to try and control outcomes. Then when we’ve exhausted our resources we finally let go and allow Him to move and work. Thinking about it in this moment it’s quite amusing – we, who are weak and dependant on a God who has all power to change any situation and has an amazing plan for our lives, for some reason behave as if we can do better and don’t surrender and allow Him to work.

This year I’m determined to read the Bible in One Year and I’m using Nicky Gumbel’s brilliant app to do so. A short while ago the OT readings were in Job. I don’t think any of us will ever fully understand why God allowed the things to happen to Job that took place in his life but sitting here looking into this crackling fire, it makes me think how constant He is in our lives. How terrible it would be to lose my family; to lose all my possessions; to be covered in incredibly painful sores as he was…but not only that…to have to go through it all without the intimacy of God’s presence. That was the most painful part for Job. Of course, eventually everything was restored to Job far more than before but as he was walking through the valley he must have felt so helpless.

Today, let’s not take for granted the constancy of our Father’s love and provision for us. No matter what turmoil we are in, His unending love burns and crackles for us…the flames of His compassion and the roar of His power to carry us and heal every pain never dies down – never grows cold. Trusting in the steady, safe and sureness of this should be our full focus. Knowing that when we rest in Him in surrender He takes care of everything. There’s nowhere His love and power can’t reach. He plans our very steps and walks with us as we take each one.

Remember today, He has gone before you and He is with you. Trust in the constancy of His love and support – He’s got you and He will never let you go.