Keller's book

Again, I want us to appreciate all the truths that are in Tim Keller's book Walking With God Through Pain and Suffering. So I have been going through it slowly, allowing the message to work on us. Here's the next section:

Keller in chapter 14 covers another way we can walk with God through difficulties--praying. I teach a literature class that focuses on the Bible. The author makes a reference here to the book of Job, which we cover in the class. He points out that the book reveals God is not nice. God is not an uncle. God is an earthquake. . .  the book of Job is a mystery. A mystery satisfies something in us, but not our reason. The rationalist is repelled by Job, as Job's three rationalist friends were repelled by Job. But something deeper in us is satisfied by Job and is nourished. It puts iron in your blood. One of the main messages of the book of Job is that both the religious and irreligious, the moralistic and the nihilistic answers are wrong. We should love God for himself alone, not for the benefits he brings. 

How can we move from loving God in a mercenary way toward loving God himself? Keller says he's afraid the primary way is to have hardship come into your life. Job's friends have a view of God that is very domesticated – he rewards you if you're doing the right thing. They're saying God can be managed with morality. God comes at the end and enters into a dialogue – he does not come to simply denounce. God comes both as a gracious, personal God and as an infinite, overwhelming force – at the very same time. The Gospel explains how God can be both the God of love and of fury that Job meets. Job is brought to contentment without ever knowing all the facts of his case. To withhold the full story from Job even after the test was over keeps him walking by faith, not by sight. 

The story of Job is a smaller version of what God is doing in your life and in the history of the world. This is the way of wisdom – to willingly admit that God alone is God. There is a rebuke in the story for any person who, by complaining about particular events in his life, implies that he could propose to God better ways of running the universe than those God currently uses. Throughout the book Job never stopped praying. Yes, he complained, but he complained to God. He kept seeking him. In the end, God said Job triumphed. 

Even if we cannot feel God in our darkest and most dry times, he is still there. Like Job, we must see him, go to him. Pray even when you're  dry. Read the Scriptures even if it is agony. See Psalm 42. The psalmist is talking to his heart, telling it to go to God, look to God. Many people have especially used the psalms to great profit. The prayers cover almost the entire range of human experience. At the end Job gives up trying to control God. When you suffer without relief, when you feel absolutely alone, you can know that, because he bore your sin, he will be with you.

More to follow. But this is a good place to stop.