Biblical Answer

Why Did God Take My Retirement?

The Bible teaches us that our relationship with God is not based on a transactional model, where we offer our service and God provides a reward. Rather, our relationship with God is a friend-to-friend relationship, where God desires a personal connection with us. This means that God is not obligated to provide us with a comfortable and secure life, but rather, He desires to have a deep and intimate relationship with us.

When we experience difficulties and challenges in our lives, it can be tempting to feel as though God has abandoned us or that He is not interested in our well-being. However, this is not necessarily the case. God may be using our struggles to draw us closer to Him and to teach us valuable lessons about faith, trust, and perseverance. As the author of Job notes, God thrusts us into experiences of dereliction to make it possible for us to enter into a life of naked faith, where we learn to love God for Himself alone.

In the case of Job, God allowed him to experience great suffering, but Job did not let his faith in God waver. Instead, he learned to keep on living by the grace of God, and because of that faith, God eventually vindicated him. This teaches us that even in the midst of great difficulty, we can choose to trust in God and to rely on His grace to sustain us. As the author notes, "Its not easy, but its sacred and its strong, and it leaves a lasting legacy." By choosing to trust in God, even when we don't understand what He is doing, we can experience a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him, and we can learn to love Him for who He is, rather than for what He can do for us.