Enduring With Job: 7 Days Of HopeSample

Job finally breaks the silence as he cries out, I wish I had never been born!

No more quietly accepting what has happened. No more sitting by and watching his life get destroyed. The rest of the book will contain the honest, visceral thoughts of Job as he searches for a purpose in his pain.

This initial scene is difficult to read through, and painfully familiar to anyone who has gone through a deeply terrible time in their life. Job asks, what is the point of life if while we are living it all we want is death? All he does is suffer all day long. Everything he thinks and feels is pain and his worst fears have come true.

He is completely broken and thoroughly exhausted.

Even here, Job is acting with bravery and integrity. He is being honest about his pain. So often, we try and hide our true feelings about what is going on. We keep it from our friends, our family, or our spouse. We also tend to keep it from ourselves and from God.

But that is not what God wants. Our Maker and Creator is not unaware of our suffering. He sees it. He knows it’s happening. We do not honor him by keeping silent or acting like our real pain is no big deal.

Harold Kushner, a writer on the book of Job, puts it like this, “A God worth worshipping is a God who prefers honest anger to flattery.”

This is the first step to dealing with our pain in a righteous and God-honoring way: to be honest about it. If your pain is making you wish you had never been born, say it. If your suffering has made you question God’s goodness, tell Him.

Pour out your insides, don’t hold anything in. God is not politically correct. He doesn’t want you to approach him and only say what you think you’re allowed to say. He wants it all! The rawness, the pain, the doubt…he wants the mess.

God wants us to acknowledge our mess so that He can enter it.

Takeaway: Don’t sugar coat your pain. God wants the real you.

Prayer: Father, help me not to hide behind what I think I should say to You. I want a real relationship with You. Please give me the courage to do that.