No one likes to answer the hard questions. I don’t mean the ones that challenge your knowledge of useless facts. I mean the ones that challenge your very existence. The questions that make you question the things you’ve build your life around. These questions are uncomfortable. They may make you squirm. They may hurt. You can choose to ignore them, but they’ll probably show up again down the road. Most of the time, it’s best to face them head on.

After Job has spent several chapters pleading to argue his case against God, God shows up in a whirlwind.

Brace yourself, because I have some questions for you, and you must answer them.

Job 38:3 (NLT)

In one way or another, we all have to answer for our choices. Job now has to answer to God for all he has said while afflicted. It won’t be pretty. His discomfort has only just begun. It’s going to hit hard. Why else would God tell him to brace himself? Other versions say things like, prepare yourself like a man, now get ready to face me!, or now get ready to fight.

The time has come for Job to face the music and take accountability for all he has said.

Have you put yourself in a place where God must tell you to brace yourself? Have you made up your mind about something without consulting Him first? Will His truth hurt or will it comfort?

When it came down to it, all Job had said against God turned out to be petty and, well, wrong. Everything he had based his argument on was proven false in just a couple of chapters. The truth hit him like a tonne of bricks and he could either accept it and move on or continue to fight against God.

If you choose to fight against God, brace yourself. It won’t be pretty.

If you choose to accept God’s correction, you may still have to brace yourself for the truth and correction, but once it’s over, you’ll find yourself back on the side of truth and wisdom without the need to fight any longer.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is stand up, get ready to face God, brace ourselves, and accept the correction that’s coming. Because after correction comes comfort.

Daily Bible reading: Job 38-39, Acts 15:1-21