Haven’t we all felt like Job at some point in our lives?
Perhaps not the extreme agony that he was in. But certainly we have known loss, pain, despair.
People often talk about how patient Job was. “Oh, to have the patience of Job?” It’s true, he was patient through his afflictions. However, what impresses me most about Job is how honest he was through it all. He holds nothing back!
I’ve written about the importance of being honest with God in my previous posts and if you ever need an example to look to on how to do that, read the book of Job.
I mean, it seems like if it could go wrong for him, it did. All of his children were murdered, his wife was not a very nice lady and curses him and tries to turn him away from God and then he falls ill with a painful skin disease and suffers day and night in sheer agony. When someone goes through that type of pain, it would be easy to understand how they may turn away from God. But not Job…
Even though his words are dark and almost hard to read at times, I appreciate his honesty. He’s not in a good place and he doesn’t pretend for a second that he is. I think it’s because Job knew that there is nothing you can hide from God, so why try? He knows our inner most thoughts and Job was hurting! In fact, he says multiple times in the book that he “loathes” his life. He is indeed in great pain and begging for it to end, by whatever means necessary. But here’s the thing…
No matter what he’s feeling, He takes it all to God.
Yes..he gets angry, cries out…even questions why God is doing this to him…
But I think this is exactly what God wants us to do. We’re not robots. And life is not always sunshine. Sometimes really bad things happen and when they do, we have two choices: take it to God or turn away from Him. It’s okay to take your pain to God. He can handle it….
God is so much bigger than our circumstances.
To me, the mark of true faith is when we are able to turn towards Him, even in the depths of despair.
The book of Job invites us to trust God’s wisdom when we encounter suffering rather than trying to figure out the “reasons” for it on our own.