Weekly Devotional: The Life of Job

College life can feel overwhelming with academic pressures, financial stress and future uncertainty. This blog uses the story of Job to show how faith can offer strength and perspective during life’s toughest challenges, reminding students that God is present even in hardship.

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Read time 3 minutes

Isabel Maguire

Published on Jan 31, 2025

College life can be overwhelming for many students. Between balancing classes, managing finances, maintaining good relationships and planning for the future, it’s easy to wonder where God is in all of it. The story of Job offers an important reminder that even in our hardest trials, faith can carry us through. Let’s dive deeper into the story of Job and what it teaches us about faith amidst trials.

Faith in the Middle of Loss

Job’s life went from plentiful and comfortable to one of painful, heartbreaking suffering. He lost his wealth, his children and his health. Yet even in the middle of all this, he remained faithful. He declared:

The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.

Job 1:21ESV

In college, loss looks much different from what Job experienced — maybe failing a class, feeling far from family or losing a close friendship. Job reminds us that faith isn’t about ignoring the pain but trusting God’s presence and plan through it all.

Communicating With God

Job wasn't afraid to pour out his heart to God. Throughout the story we see how personal his relationship with his Creator is. In Job 3, we see him lamenting his pain and suffering, yet even in his doubt and frustration, Job never turned away from God.

Often, we feel that we need to have perfect faith in order to come to God, but Job’s story shows us that God values honesty and doesn’t expect perfection. When life gets hard, take your questions, frustrations and pain to Him in prayer. He can help us through it when we can’t manage it alone.

Listening to Wise Counsel

Job’s friends initially came and comforted him. They sat with him in silence, sensing his need to be comforted by presence, not words. When they did speak, however, their advice was the opposite of helpful. Some blamed him for his actions leading to his suffering. They assumed this pain must be the consequence of his previous actions. This points out that not all advice is godly or helpful.

In college, it’s important to surround yourself with friends who will lead you back to Christ. Seek those who encourage your relationship with God and help you make wise decisions.

Trusting God’s Plan

By the end, Job still doesn’t completely understand why he suffered, but he does come to know that his faith has deepened. Job’s faith was refined by the trials he went through, and he trusted God’s plan even when it made no sense to him.

The future can seem like a mystery to most people, especially college students. Like Job, we may not get answers to our many burning questions about the future, but we can trust God is working for good, and he has it all under control.

The story of Job shows us that faith isn’t about avoiding trials but growing through them. Trials can help strengthen your faith in ways you never imagined possible. Lean into God’s presence, seek His wisdom and trust His purpose for your life. The details of the future will follow in their perfect time.

Grand Canyon University is dedicated to helping you follow God’s word, even in the middle of hard seasons. To explore more about spiritual life here at GCU, look through our weekly devotionals or complete the form on this page to learn more about what we offer.

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Written By

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Isabel Maguire

Professional Writing Student,

GCU

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Approved and verified accurate by the local outreach coordinator of the Department of Spiritual Life on Jan. 6, 2025.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Grand Canyon University. Any sources cited were accurate as of the publish date.