For my whole life, I have owned a bible but throughout middle school, and high school I never really opened it. I did not see the importance of reading my bible until I got older and I started to realize that I can’t get through life without God. I have tried before and always fail. I go through seasons of being really good about reading my bible and seasons where I won’t open it at all. I always see a difference in my attitude and life when I don’t read my bible for a while. It is there for a reason and is an important tool to help us get through all parts of our lives.

For the past few weeks, after struggling for a while, I started going through a new book in the bible that my small group leader recommended to me. She told me I should read Job and I agreed and started to read it. Job is a wisdom book, and it really focuses on being able to trust God, even when He tests us.

I remember going home one night and starting this book, and honestly, I did not like it at first. I remember thinking to myself “why the heck would Ruthie recommend this book?” It was really depressing, in the beginning, I saw God testing Job a lot and it made me think back to all the times I have seen God test me in my life. I could relate a lot to Job. I feel like God has been testing me in certain ways these past few months of my life. I read it on and off for a few days, trying to figure out if I wanted to commit to this book. It was long, and the first few chapters were just hard to get through.

My small group leader kept telling me to just push through it because the ending is good, so I did. I read a little bit every night, and just witnessed Job struggling through the majority of this book. He had different conversations throughout this story with three of his friends, and then God started talking at the end. My favorite part of Job was the ending. Although I learned a lot by reading through his struggles, I was really reassured when God started talking in the last few chapters.

In the end, I learned that God allows us to grow through trials so that we can grow closer to Him. God restored Job, after all the suffering he went through. I remember just sitting on my bed with tears in my eyes because this reminded me that God has a reason for the suffering in my life and that He will restore me more than I can even imagine. Nothing can shake the plans that God has for our lives and I was reminded of this while reading through Job.Although I struggled at the beginning, I am ultimately so thankful that my small group leader kept encouraging me to push through this story.

I have a whole new perspective on what I have gone through after reading this book and seeing how God pulls through for us no matter what.