God Is Using You to Tell a Story
In a season marked by loss, faith, and unanswered questions, Dianna Hobbs reflects on how God uses even the hardest chapters of our lives to reveal His faithfulness, refine our trust, and tell a story that ultimately leads to restoration.
Photo Credit: Oscar Wong/Getty
Happy New Year!
God stirred my spirit and said, “Don’t let this day go by without sharing a devotion. I have a word for My people.”
And to that, I said, “Yes, Lord.”
It may be later in the evening when this publishes, but I will not let the clock strike midnight without doing what the Lord instructed me to do. And friend, whenever you are reading this, know that you are here on assignment. This is not an accident.
So last evening, as we crossed over into a new year, just after midnight, I found myself doing something familiar. Something many of us do. I was sending “Happy New Year” messages to my family. It was an ordinary moment. Routine. Simple.
Right?
And then it happened.
My fingers hovered over my phone as I almost texted my brother Christopher. For a moment, my mind forgot what my heart already knew. Then reality rushed in. He’s no longer here.
It was such a sobering moment. Not loud or dramatic, just quiet and sudden. It reminded me that grief doesn’t always announce itself with tears. Sometimes it shows up in the middle of a normal moment and stops you in your tracks.
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Last year was overwhelming in ways I never could have imagined. My father went home to be with Jesus in July. Then, just four months later, my brother Christopher passed away in November. The closeness of those losses hit me like a truck. There were moments I felt like I couldn’t breathe. I heaved. I curled up in bed and sobbed. The weight of it all, at times, felt unbearable.
And yet, something else happened too.
Instead of letting that New Year moment undo me, God shifted my focus and reminded me that the home-going of my loved ones is not ultimately about me.
This is their reward for serving Him faithfully on earth. Though I will miss them dearly, I rejoice that our gracious God has kept His promise. He calls His faithful home unto Himself. And I do not grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
I thought about where Chris is now. I thought about Daddy. Both of them, bishops in the Lord’s church until their last day, are home with Jesus. Whole. Restored. At peace in a way this world can’t offer.
And in that moment, grief did not win. Faith did.
Last year reinforced a lesson God has taught me throughout my 49 years of life. Life’s ups and downs can come quickly. Joy and loss can sit close together. Grief can follow laughter without warning.
But it also reminded me of something deeper and steadier.
God is faithful.
God is just.
God is righteous.
And God is good in every season.
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Loving the Lord doesn’t make us trouble-proof. It never has. Faith doesn’t exempt us from pain. Obedience doesn’t shield us from loss. Walking with God doesn’t mean we won’t ever be shaken. It means that when we are, He holds us steady.
Scripture gives language to this reality: “We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8–9).
If we forget this truth, we risk adopting a dangerous mindset, one that assumes suffering means failure, loss means disobedience, and hardship signals God’s displeasure.
That mistake was made by one of Job’s closest friends. His name was Eliphaz.
He was one of three friends who came to Job in his suffering. Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar saw his pain, sat beside him, and remained silent for seven days and seven nights because Job’s grief was so overwhelming. Job sat in ashes, his body covered in sores, his children gone, his livelihood wiped out, his strength spent.
When Eliphaz finally spoke, he’d seen his friend’s pain up close. He’d watched him weep and heard him groan. But when he opened his mouth, out flowed condemnation.
“Consider now,” Eliphaz said, “who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed?” (Job 4:7). In other words, Eliphaz was saying, Think about it, Job. Truly righteous people don’t suffer like this.
Then he continued: “As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it” (Job 4:8). Eliphaz believed he was offering real wisdom, but his conclusion missed something essential. He assumed that if suffering had come, then sin must have come first.
And as if that weren’t enough, Eliphaz suggested that his perspective was directly from God: “A word was secretly brought to me… My ear caught a whisper of it” (Job 4:12). Eliphaz believed he had special insight, a quiet revelation Job himself couldn’t see.
Later, Eliphaz offered what he believed was comfort. “Blessed is the one whom God corrects. So do not despise the discipline of the Almighty” (Job 5:17). To Eliphaz, the answer was simple. Accept correction, submit to discipline, and God will restore.
It sounded spiritual. It sounded orderly. It sounded familiar.
But it missed the mark.
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What Eliphaz didn’t know, but the reader does, is that Job’s suffering was not punishment, nor was it discipline. Heaven had already declared Job upright. And Scripture does not leave Eliphaz’s error open to interpretation.
After the Lord had spoken to Job, the Lord said directly to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has” (Job 42:7).
God held all three friends accountable, but He singled Eliphaz out, the one who spoke first, who set the tone, whose theology shaped the others.
And the irony is hard to miss.
Eliphaz’s name means “My God is gold” or “God is pure as refined gold.” Refinement is a process. Gold is purified by intense heat that reveals what is genuine and burns away what does not belong.
Eliphaz, who knew God to be refined gold, offered Job unrefined theology that couldn’t withstand the heat of divine scrutiny. In a moment that demanded real discernment, revelation, and sound doctrine, he drew conclusions that had never been tested by the Refiner’s fire.
Some seasons require you to let people draw their conclusions while you draw closer to God, trusting Him to support you, restore you, and vindicate you at the appointed time.
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At the start of this new year, I feel God nudging me to correct a narrative. To set this straight.
Because someone reading this is hurting and quietly wondering, “What did I do wrong?” Someone is carrying trouble and assuming it must be punishment. Someone is replaying their pain, searching for some failure that explains it.
I’ve been there many times.
Hear this clearly. Suffering is not always punishment.
Scripture never teaches that every hardship is a sign of God’s displeasure. The book of Job confronts that idea head-on. Job didn’t suffer because he was unfaithful. He suffered because Heaven trusted him. God Himself declared Job upright before the trouble ever began (Job 1:8).
Sometimes suffering isn’t about correction; it’s about trust.
God trusted Job’s integrity. God trusted Job’s heart. God trusted Job to endure pressure without letting go of Him. And God trusted Job to pray for the very people who falsely accused him.
Could it be that God simply trusts you?
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Job’s breakthrough didn’t come when he defended himself or when he was finally understood by his misguided friends. No. It came when he prayed. After the accusations. After the misjudgment. After the harsh critiques. After the unrefined theology spoken over him.
Scripture says, “After Job had prayed for his friends, the LORD restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before” (Job 42:10 NIV).
Not before the pain. Not before the process. Not before the mischaracterization. After.
“God is saying this: because He can trust you with trouble, He’s about to bless you with double!”
Listen, friend. Somebody is walking through something right now, and God sent me to tell you that in this case, it is not a sign of His anger. It is evidence that God can trust you with trouble. This is preparation for greater. He is positioning you for His glory.
God is telling a story through your life.
Someone needs to see how you go through. Someone needs to watch how you trust God in the storm. Someone needs to witness how you wait without bitterness. Someone needs to see how you praise God in the middle of trouble. Someone needs to learn how to pray for those who hurt them and bless those who spoke against them.
Your life is telling a story. A story of faith under pressure. A story of obedience without answers. A story of praise in the waiting. A story of prayer instead of retaliation. A story that ends in harvest.
And no matter what chapter you are in right now, you can rest assured of this. The story ends with greater. Greater breakthroughs. Greater victories. Greater testimonies of God’s mighty power.
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1 Peter 5:10—the sweetener I’m stirring into your cup of inspiration today—says this: “But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.”
As you drink down the contents of your cup today, I want you to know this: your current season is not your ending. I hear in the Holy Ghost that your before is about to give way to your after!
Your sorrow is about to give way to joy. Your lack is about to give way to abundance. Your stagnation is about to give way to promotion. Your loss is about to give way to restoration.
Your ashes are about to give way to beauty (Isaiah 61:3).
All you’ve got to do is hold on long enough to see what God is producing. Stay faithful through the fire, knowing full well that the same God who allowed the process has already secured the promise.
Now let’s pray.
Father, I thank You for being the God of all grace, who has called us into Your eternal glory through Christ Jesus, according to 1 Peter 5:10. Thank You that, like Job, we can trust You even when the process is painful and the outcome is not yet visible. We stand on Your Word that after we have suffered a while, You will perfect us, establish us, strengthen us, and settle us. We receive that promise by faith today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
As always, thanks for reading and until next time... may today's cup of inspiration uplift, encourage, and empower you!
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