Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from Radical.net.

Different points in the book of Job, the sovereignty of God, the power of God, the reality that

every single one of us at every single second is sustained by God.

And not just us, everything in the world is sustained by God, is held up by God in the

Colossians one kind of way. Everything exists in and from and through him. He holds all things together.

Colossians one is specifically talking about Jesus being the one who holds the whole universe

together. And so when we read this in Job 34, so we were praying in the previous podcast episode

from Job 33 about how God uses suffering in our lives. Even if it's not because of any particular

evil or sin in us, God is still working to refine our faith. So that's one of the many purposes of

God in suffering to refine our faith. Here's another purpose. God uses suffering to bring us to

that awareness that we need him in every way for everything in our lives. As we walk through

difficulties, trials, valleys in our lives, don't we see our need for God in even greater ways

in ways that were sometimes prone or tempted to miss when everything is going well for us?

It's a good thing. Like I think about seasons in my life where I'm walking through,

have experienced suffering, pain, grief, whatever it might be. Like you wake up every morning,

just, God, I need you. I need your help in this way. I need your grace in this way. I need your

strength that feels so weak. I need your joy. I need these things from you. And in this,

we see part of the good and redeeming and refining purposes of God because it's good for us to

wake up every morning and realize we need God and not just realize we need him, but realize he is

faithful to give us all that we need. Philippians 4.19, my God will supply all your needs. Oh,

just let this soak in today, especially if you're walking through one of those valleys,

one of those seasons. My God will supply all your needs according to the glories of his riches

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