Job 7:6-7 “My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and they come to an end without hope. Remember, O God, that my life is but a breath; my eyes will never see happiness again. "
The Book of Job we are finding out, is among other things, a handbook for insight into human suffering. It does not have all the answers, on the contrary the Book itself raises questions and some of them if taken out of context can be very troubling.
It helps us see suffering from the victim's point of view. It gives us insight into what not to say when someone we know is suffering. And as we will discover this morning it shows us how to pray more effectively.
Job had experienced massive loss: children, wealth, wife, health and friends. He lost everything.
At this point in his suffering Job has lost all hope of things ever improving here on earth for him.
People who experience a wide range of health problems and emotional losses can get to the point where hope is lost. The loss of his children, his wife, his friends, his weatlh and his health put him in a place emotionally and mentally where he thought it was all over.
Job expressed this condition well in these words in these two verses we just read. Basically he was saying, "My life is over. I have no hope nor any future here on earth. I will never experience happiness again."
Job was expressing his feelings. These were not the facts. I have people say to me, "You can't tell someone how to feel." No, but I can tell them the facts. We have become an overly sensitive society where feelings are more important than facts- all important. Decisions are made often solely on the way a person feels. I can tell you if I had lived like that my life would have been a disaster. If you face suffering based on your feelings you will come to this same dead end Job did.
I am not blaming Job for the struggle he was having. God knows that this could happen to any of us. Even Paul, the apostle, wrote to the Corinthians: 2 Corinthians 1:8-9 We do not want you to be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we experienced in the province of Asia. We were under great pressure, far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead.
Jesus, the Man of Sorrows expressed the extent of His suffering in the Garden Of Gethsemene in these words: Mark 14:34 “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,” He said to them. “Stay here and keep watch.”
Both Jesus and Paul knew of the Resurrection power. That is why they could pray at this point.
They had hope. Job lost his hope. Not his faith, love or integrity, just his hope in things improving for him on this earth. God had different plans. When we get to those places He always does. We may look at things or a situation and say, "There is no hope. This is it. Its all over." God comes with His plan ad in love reveals it to us in His perfect time.
Job had said basically that the end was near and that he would never see happiness again on earth. He did have hope in the Resurrection: Job 19:25-27 I know that my redeemer lives,and that in the end he will stand on the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed,yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see himwith my own eyes—I, and not another.How my heart yearns within me!" Hope in the Resurrection not in things ever improving here on earth.
When God spoke the Word to Habakkuk ( 1.5)He made it plain that the work He was going to was going to be "in your days." Habakkuk had been praying and it seemed like God was not answering. He told the LORD that He tolertated evil. God told the tired prophet that He was at work and that He was going to do something in his days that even if he were told he would not believe.
So our prayers can be determined by the way we are feeling and they should contain our feelings but they should not be ruled by our feelings because in doing so we can ignore facts and not pray as we should. Sometimes our feelings run opposite to God's will. Jesus' prayer in the Garden of Gethsemene is an example. "Father if it is possible, let this cup pass from me, nevertheless not what I will but what You will." We take our feelings to the LORD but pray according to His will.
Here are some facts we need to remember when we pray, to help us to pray better:
1. We Do Not Know The Future.
"my eyes will never see happiness again"
God knows the future.
Job was feeling this but it was not reality.
The truth was Job 42:12-15 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part. He had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand donkeys. And he also had seven sons and three daughters. The first daughter he named Jemimah ( Day By Day) the second Keziah ( a spice; a powdered bark like cinnamon) and the third Keren-Happuch ( strength of fair colors). Nowhere in all the land were there found women as beautiful as Job’s daughters, and their father granted them an inheritance along with their brothers.
Guard against making statements about the future- especially your own future.
James 4:13-15 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.”
Job's statement was not really boasting. It was more made out of depression.
We can plan for certain things ahead but we really do not know what is up ahead.
Proverbs 27:1 Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth.
In our praying we must remember God has a plan for our life.
Psalm 139:16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Suffering can be ordained by God and often it is. It is part of His plan to discipline us so we may share in His righteousness,
Matthew 6:25, 34 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
J.B. Phillips Your God Is Too Small
It is the purpose of this book to attempt two things: first to expose the inadequate conceptions of God which still linger unconsciously in many minds, and which prevent our catching a glimpse of the true God; and secondly to suggest ways in which we can find the real God for ourselves. If it is true that there is Someone in charge of the whole mystery of life and death, we can hardly expect to escape a sense of futility and frustration until we begin to see what He is like and what His purposes are.
A great deal of the refinement we need in our prayers is our own concept of God. Inadequate concepts of God produce inadequate prayers. We want to pray effectively.
James 5.16 The prayers of a righteous man are powerful and effective.
2. We Do Not Understand the Mysterious Ways of God
We know the Truth, Jesus said He is the Truth.
We know He will keep us.
“We are not necessarily doubting that God will do the best for us; we are wondering how painful the best will turn out to be."― C.S. Lewis
2 Timothy 1:12 That is why I am suffering as I am. Yet this is no cause for shame, because I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until that day.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
In elephantiasis maggots are bred in the sores. Bible scholars believe Job had a form of this. Yet he did pray. Although his prayers were not according to God's will and plan at least he prayed! We can learn. Whe the worst hits us, whe the bottom falls out, God is there and is not only present but He has a plan.
Again I think it is wise for us to listen to a person in deep suffering, not to speak, just to listen, hold their hand and cry wit them. So often what is said by would be comforters does not come from the mouth of God but from inexperience and pride.
3.We Do Not Need To Educate God or Others as We Pray.
They need to be directed to God.
We need to forget people are listening.
It is not a time of announcements.
It is a time of communion with Him.
It needs to be a time of total dependence upon Him.
He knows what we have need of before we ask.
4. We had hoped.
The Road To Emmaus
Luke 24:21 but we had hoped that He was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place.
The loss of Hope
For the believer hope is always thing of the future.
Learning to walk by faith means not always understanding what is going on.
But when we do encounter those moments we look to Jesus for strength.
most God-ordained dreams die because we aren’t willing to do something that seems illogical. Mark Batterson. God give me your dreams and not my little wishful thinking
5. We need to remember.
Jesus walks among His church.
The Holy Spirit illuminate His Word.
He will come again.
When He comes will He find faith on the earth.
Let's pray again the request of His disciples, "LORD, teach us to pray." Allow His Spirit to enlarge your own concept of God today. Let Him refine it and make you more like Jesus.
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