Why can’t our lives be stress-free and problem free just like it was for Jesus? Jesus preached his first sermon, and they wanted to throw him off a cliff. “If Jesus faced rejection when He preached truth in love, we shouldn’t be surprised when following Him costs us the same.”
Ultimately Job points us toward Jesus, the One who truly suffered innocently yet focused his attention and his affection on the Father no matter how much He suffered.
After seven days of sitting in grief Job breaks his silence being completely honest about his pain and God wasn’t blown away. Even when we are faithless God remains faithful! (2 Timothy 2:13)
You can’t hide anything from God. He knows about it so you might as well talk about it. Job 3 reminds us we don’t inform God; we invite God into our pain.
Job 3:1-2 After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. 2 And Job said: 3 “Let the day perish on which I was born…
Job 3:20 Why is light given to him who is in misery, and life to the bitter in soul. ESV
Job 3:26 I am not at ease, nor am I quiet; I have no rest, but trouble comes. ESV
Job doesn’t try to manage his emotions, control his tone, or make his words “sound spiritual.” He says what he really feels — confusion, despair, even wishing he’d never been born. Notice, he didn’t curse God, even when he did curse the day he was born.
Expressing pain is not the same as abandoning faith. Lament is a form of worship because it takes our deepest questions into the presence of God rather than turning away from Him.
Job teaches us to lament speaking honestly before God. The Bible doesn’t silence pain; it gives it a voice.
God prefers honest hurt over fake hallelujahs any day of the week!
We instinctively try to avoid pain, but pain serves a purpose. Pain after surgery is a normal part of the healing process. Pain makes you walk cautiously because something deeper is going on. Spiritually this is the same. The pace slows and the difficulty actually becomes a tool in the hand of God to make you more aware of Him! Take some time with it and let it have its deeper work in helping you give your undivided attention to God.
We can learn to respond to God rather than reacting to the devil even when bad things happen to good people! The same sun that melts the ice hardens the clay.
A little girl had a bad day at school and was in tears. When her grandmother picked her up she simply asked the little girl to please take the time to tell her all about it. The drive was short and the story continued as the grandmother helped her to her seat at the kitchen table. While the little girl continued on about all that had taken place that day the grandmother did something interesting. She filled three pots about half full of water and placed them on the stove. In one pot she put eggs, in another she put carrots and in the other she put coffee beans.
After a while the grandmother put three small plates in front of the little girl. On one plate she put a cooked carrot. On the next she put a cooked egg. And on the final plate she poured coffee into a cup from the water that had been boiling coffee beans.
The wise grandmother explained. Sometimes the fires of life will be turned up. When they are you can be like the carrots and grow soft, like the eggs and grow hard or like the coffee beans releasing something of a beautiful aroma to your world. It was a beautiful lesson for the little girl that she never forgot.
Circumstances may explain you, but they do not have to define you.
Waves of grief are always met with even greater waves of grace!
Worship that rises from a place of suffering, loss, or brokenness carries a unique fragrance before God because it is so costly us dearly. Don’t waste it as this won’t be possible in Heaven.
GP2RL: Spend some time with God this week being honest about any pain in your life.
