The Mirror of the Word and other works by C.E. White can be purchased on her website, cewhitebooks.com or on Amazon.

“I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear; but now my eye sees you; therefore I retract, and I repent, sitting on dust and ashes.” 

—Job 42:5–6

There are different ways of knowing God. We can know what we’ve heard about him without having any experience that leads to understanding. This is what Job is explaining.

When he finally did see God, he realized that trying to understand the Lord with his own human limitations had been nothing but foolishness. He retracts his former opinions and recognizes the limitations of his human insight. Now he’s ready to trust God even when he doesn’t have answers.

When we come to see the Lord as he truly is, our response is utter humility—the recognition of our own smallness before him, our complete dependence upon him, and the total submission we rightly owe him as the God who knows all from the beginning to the end of time.

The more we see of him, the more of ourselves—our pride, self–sufficiency, abilities, and understanding—we will turn away from in order to trust the only true power and wisdom of God himself.

And this utter humility will lead to us trusting him without question, to confidence in his guidance even when it doesn’t make sense to our human sensibilities, and to following him with thanksgiving and praise even when we can’t see the ultimate plan.

The world is broken because of our sin, but in his sovereign grace, he can and will use even the brokenness to bring about good as we follow and obey.

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