Job 7:11 "Therefore I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the anguish of my spirit; I will complain in the bitterness of my soul. 12 Am I a sea, or a sea serpent, that You set a guard over me? 13 When I say, "My bed will comfort me, my couch will ease my complaint," 14 Then You scare me with dreams and terrify me with visions, 15 So that my soul chooses strangling and death rather than my body. 16 I loath my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone for my days are but a breath."
Psalm 39: 12 "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry; do not be silent at my tears; for I am a stranger with You, a sojourner, as all my fathers were. 13 Remove Your gaze from me, that I may regain strength, before I go away and am no more."
Job 9: 17 "For He crushes me with a tempest, and multiplies my wounds without cause."
Job 9: 21 "I am blameless, yet I do not know myself; I despise my life."
Job expresses his extreme pain. There is no rest for his soul, no escape from the circumstance. His nights are filled with terror he faces affliction and he wonders of God's wrath for him. He has exhausted himself to find his fault so that he can move from this place of agony. He is enveloped, overcome and pleads that God would let him alone because he has reached the end of himself to the point that he does not want to continue this life.
Job knew that he did not know himself as God knew him. God knows us completely. Job knew his days were but a "breath" and longed for the freedom he knew God had for him. Job believed his suffering was meaningless, without cause.
We are constantly asking and seeking out God with our "whys" when we fall into trials and tribulations. We sometimes take grace and repentance with a grain of salt and it becomes bland to us. Then something really different happens and we begin to anguish deeply and we need the grace of God so desperately that we cannot bear it.
Look what Paul says in II Corinthians 2:4 "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you, with many tears, not that you should be grieved, but that you might know the LOVE which I have so abundantly for you."
Saints the anguish and affliction that Jesus gave on the cross was out of love that He had abundantly for you. The same afflictions and anguish that you face now, today are from God for revision, refining, and tearing down strongholds in your life. The very things you detest are causing you to change, look around and examine. They are crushing off parts of you that were good for yesterday, but not good enough to meet the next place God has for. A rebuilding and renewal comes from faith that is derived from hardship.
When we first find Christ is it most often in our lowest place. And often there is not only one Job experience in our lives but many, and they differ each time. But a freshness comes from that place of desperation and desolation. The stench pours out of our pores from the anguish, the anxiety, the stench of the flesh. The notions and preconceived ideas in our heads. The old thoughts and views that are no longer the vision God wants us to see. Yes, a new beginning and a new man walks out of the dust of the battle. He looks different because he is changed. But he comes out with a faith that can move mountains, and hands that can manifest the goodness of God through the miraculous. Yes, a man that can heal the sick, and cause the blind to see because HE WAS blind, HE WAS dumb. HE WAS deaf to the sounds of the crys of God's people. He was the old man and God is making a new man so that you might understand the abundant love He has for you.
It hurts today, but your tears are seen. He hears your prayers and your crys. But there is a new place for you to go and when you come out of the dust of the battle you will have new arrows in your quiver not only for yourself but for others. Your Job experience today will set you free from things you had no idea you carried. It won't be pretty, and yes it will hurt, but you will be freer than you ever knew you could be and the still small voice will be louder. The world will appear differently, you will be sharper, you will be wiser. As Job said we are sojourners or just passing through but there is much work to be done. JOBers, you are called to a higher rank. Stand up and be counted!
