Note: the following is the manuscript for the message and will not match exactly the recorded message above.
In The Last Battle, the final book of the Chronicles of Narnia series, C.S. Lewis describes a group of Dwarfs who are brought into paradise but cannot see it. It is a beautiful place full of lush green grass, fruit trees, and warm sunshine. But everything is dark and miserable to them.
They are given a feast, but they taste only bland food and dirty water because they’re so afraid of being tricked or being made to look like fools that they shut out the truth.
The humans want to help them see what’s really there, but Aslan the great lion says, “They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.”
Lewis was a master of allegory, using captivating stories to communicate deep spiritual truths. In this story, he is demonstrating how people can be so guarded and suspicious of others, and so confident in their own perspective, they are blind to what God is doing in their midst.
Throughout the story of Job, we have seen this played out as Job’s companions were more concerned with upholding their own views that they couldn’t even consider that maybe God was doing something outside of their comprehension.
Now, we come to a completely new voice. Elihu is a young man who seems to have been present throughout the speeches.
Job 32–37 contains a lengthy speech in which Elihu challenges Job and his friends. He is frustrated, first by Job’s friends, who have failed to persuade Job, and second by Job’s insistence that God has been unjust.
Following Job’s challenge to God in the previous chapters in which Job wants God to respond, Elihu claims that God is speaking and has spoken. God’s hand is not evident only in blessing but also in suffering. He suggests that pain can be God’s way of refining people, turning them to the right path.
Elihu presents a God who is not silent or distant in the midst of trials and suffering. But just as is the case with the other speeches, we need to understand what Elihu is saying within the greater context of Scripture.
His speech led me to ask two main questions, which will be the focus of the message today:
First, “How involved is God in our day-to-day lives?”
Second, “How does God use suffering to get our attention?”
How involved is God in our day-to-day activities?
Read Job 32:1-12; 33:1-26
Key Verse: Job 33:14 “For God does speak—now one way, now another— though no one perceives it.”
That’s the core of Elihu’s message. God is not silent. But often, we aren’t listening. Sometimes God interrupts us so that we will turn toward him and pay attention.
There are many more examples of God’s involvement in our lives. Psalm 139 says that God intimately knows us.
Psalm 139:1–6 “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely. You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.”
In Matthew 6, Jesus says God provides us with everything we need.
Matthew 6:25–26 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”
And in Acts 9, we read an example of how God intervenes to set us in a new direction.
Acts 9:1–6 “Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Scripture is clear that God cares about and gets involved in our daily lives, whether or not we see it.
Elihu is trying to say to Job, God is speaking to you. But, you’re not hearing him. He is also motivated by upholding God’s justice. He goes on later in his speech:
Job 34:10–15 “So listen to me, you men of understanding. Far be it from God to do evil, from the Almighty to do wrong. He repays everyone for what they have done; he brings on them what their conduct deserves. It is unthinkable that God would do wrong, that the Almighty would pervert justice. Who appointed him over the earth? Who put him in charge of the whole world? If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, all humanity would perish together and mankind would return to the dust.”
But, where he fails in the same way as the other friends is in his view of God’s justice system. He believes that God always executes his justice by blessing the righteous and punishing the wicked.
Job 36:5–12 “God is mighty, but despises no one; he is mighty, and firm in his purpose. He does not keep the wicked alive but gives the afflicted their rights. He does not take his eyes off the righteous; he enthrones them with kings and exalts them forever. But if people are bound in chains, held fast by cords of affliction, he tells them what they have done— that they have sinned arrogantly. He makes them listen to correction and commands them to repent of their evil. If they obey and serve him, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment. But if they do not listen, they will perish by the sword and die without knowledge.”
What is true about this is that God will intervene in the life of someone who is walking away from him. But, we cannot assume to know God’s wisdom and timing in this process.
His method is not predictable. So we are best to not make judgments about why trials come. In the example of Job, it had nothing to do with Job walking away from God. Rather, Job is an instrument of God’s revelation.
If you are experiencing a season of suffering, be careful not to jump to conclusions about the purposes of God or that if you do this or that, he will end the suffering. Or, if you are praying for someone to return to God, don’t lose hope if it seems like your prayers are not being heard.
2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.”
So, to answer the first question, yes God is involved in our daily lives. He is involved as a loving father who wants to see us grow into who he knows we can become. And he provides what we need in order to get there.
But, how can we discern God’s work through our trials? This brings us to our second question.
How does God use trials to get our attention?
Going back to C.S. Lewis, in his book, The Problem of Pain, “God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”
This statement from Lewis trips me up because I don’t like assuming that suffering is always God speaking to us in order to set us back on the right path.
So, I consulted another, more contemporary resource on this subject. You may have heard of ChatGPT, which is an artificial intelligence text generator. Within that system, you can customize the AI’s personality.
I created one that is meant to be witty, cynical, and sarcastic and never gives a direct answer. I asked it, “Is suffering necessary for humans to become people worthy of our existence?” This was its response:
Oh, wow. Someone lit a philosophical scented candle today.
Yes, sure, suffering is “necessary,” if by “necessary” you mean inevitable, unpleasant, and inconveniently character-building. You’re not wrong. Most humans only seem to develop empathy, depth, or even mildly interesting conversation topics after getting emotionally drop-kicked by life a few times. Tragedy builds character, etc.—it’s all very Greek drama meets Instagram wellness reel.
But let’s not get too romantic about it. People love to pretend their pain made them “better,” when often it just made them bitter with a better vocabulary. Trauma doesn’t come with a punch card for enlightenment. Sometimes it just makes you flinch at loud noises and overshare on first dates.
And honestly? If you need suffering to feel “worthy” of your existence… congratulations, you’ve hacked the human condition. Existential discomfort is your operating system. But maybe—just maybe—you could balance that out with a tiny, shameful slice of joy or rest. I won’t tell anyone.
But sure. Suffer nobly. Think deep thoughts. Just don’t be surprised when all it makes you is tired and slightly more tolerable at dinner parties.
Now, this is clearly unhelpful advice, not to be taken the least bit seriously. But I use it to demonstrate the attitude of our age. We avoid suffering and discomfort at all costs. We are more interested in safety and comfort than becoming who God intends for us to be.
Someone might say, can’t we have both? Why can’t we be safe and comfortable and also become who God wants us to be? This is not just a contemporary issue, but a human condition that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.
All through history, humanity has been searching for a way to have it all in the easiest way possible.
The Serpent said to Eve, eat this fruit and you will be like God. It’s the fastest and easiest way to divinity. Just take a bite and everything will be yours.
Job’s friends said to Job, repent from your hidden sin, appeal to God’s justice system and get all your stuff back. Stop this unnecessary suffering. God will restore you if you are truly righteous.
Then comes Elihu, an unlikely voice of reason. Elihu’s message is clear: God is not far off. He speaks from the whirlwind of your suffering.
Whether or not we recognize it, He is actively guiding and correcting because there is no shortcut to perfection.
There is no easy path to the good life.
And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says, “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.” Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all. Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live! They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Hebrews 12:5–11, NIV
Romans 5:3–5 “Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”
James 1:2–4 “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
To answer the questions we began with, we can say with confidence that God is involved in our daily lives and that he does use trials and suffering to get our attention and refine us.
But, we must be wise in how we understand this, not jumping to conclusions about why we or others are suffering.
While God can use anything in our lives for our good and his glory, the reality is that suffering was never God’s design and it is never good in and of itself.
And yet, because of sin, suffering is a part of everyone’s experience. The best we can do is turn to God in our suffering, ask him for strength and relief, and trust him to bring us through it.
Going back to the Dwarfs in C.S. Lewis’ story, are we going to be stubborn, sitting in what we think is a miserable experience? Or will we allow God to open our eyes to the reality and beauty of his kingdom even in the midst of the hardship?
Elihu ends with a poetic picture of God’s power in nature—storms, thunder, snow—as metaphors for God’s sovereign and majestic rule, stating that God speaks from the whirlwind not only for judgment but also for awe, instruction, and blessing.
Job 37:1–14 “At this my heart pounds and leaps from its place. Listen! Listen to the roar of his voice, to the rumbling that comes from his mouth. He unleashes his lightning beneath the whole heaven and sends it to the ends of the earth. After that comes the sound of his roar; he thunders with his majestic voice. When his voice resounds, he holds nothing back. God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the snow, ‘Fall on the earth,’ and to the rain shower, ‘Be a mighty downpour.’ So that everyone he has made may know his work, he stops all people from their labor. The animals take cover; they remain in their dens. The tempest comes out from its chamber, the cold from the driving winds. The breath of God produces ice, and the broad waters become frozen. He loads the clouds with moisture; he scatters his lightning through them. At his direction they swirl around over the face of the whole earth to do whatever he commands them. He brings the clouds to punish people, or to water his earth and show his love. “Listen to this, Job; stop and consider God’s wonders.”
Nahum 1:3 “The Lord is slow to anger but great in power; the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.”
Psalm 29 “The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert… The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, “Glory!” The Lord sits enthroned over the flood; the Lord is enthroned as King forever. The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.”
Mark 4:39–41 “He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm. He said to his disciples, “Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They were terrified and asked each other, “Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!”
In both the calm before and after the storm, and in the midst of the whirlwind, God’s voice can be heard. The question isn’t whether God is speaking but whether we are willing to listen.
And, here is what might be the most important lesson. The way in to the blessings of God is not by avoiding suffering but by enduring them in obedience to God.
This is the example of Christ, who was perfectly obedient. Yet, his obedience took him through the worst suffering imaginable.
And it was only through this suffering that the greatest blessing is now available to us, which is eternal life free from all suffering. It is available to all who say yes to the invitation of Jesus. There are two main ways we say yes. One is baptism.
If you have said yes to Jesus, it will result in turning away from your former identity and dependance on yourself and toward Christ. Baptism is the first physical act in this process.
The second is communion, which is a repeated act of saying yes to Jesus, continued throughout the life of a believer.