God Can Handle Your Laments

 

Fastforward to chapter 10 of Job (we'll talk about his friends and their "advice" later) and we see that Job is not afraid to let his thoughts be known to God.

I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak of the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God, Do not condemn me; let me know why you contend against me.

Job wanted to know why God was allowing all these disasters to befall him. He earnestly wanted to know what he had done to deserve it all. Job wasn't asking why because he was curious...he wanted to be sure his conscience was clear before God. In all of chapter 10, Job never asks for God to take away his sickness. He simply asks, "Why do You contend with me?" Contend means to treat a person as wicked. Charles Spurgeon suggested a few answers to Job's question (and ours today when we go through trials):

*To show you His power to uphold you

*To develop your graces

*He wants you to enter the fellowship of His sufferings

*To humble you

Job goes on to lay his complaints before God.

Does it seem good to You that You should oppress, that You should despise the work of Your hands?

Really God? You created me & this is how You treat me?!

You know that I am not wicked.

Job knew that God knew that Job was not a wicked man! God even specifically told Satan that Job was an upright and blameless man who feared God and shunned evil! 

Your hands have made me and fashioned me, an intricate unity; yet You would destroy me.

Job felt like God was out to destroy him, understandably so! What Job didn't know is that God put limits on what Satan could take from Job (his life). What is hard to see in the midst of trials and hard times is God's power. When a believer experiences tragedy, trials, or hard times that seem to have no end, humans tend to see God as weak because those "bad" things are happening. Why wouldn't a powerful God put a stop to such awful things?! What we fail to see is the "behind the scenes" of what God very specifically allows. Just as in the case of Job, God is almighty and all-powerful and nothing that happens is outside of His hands. Why do bad things happen to good people? Well, first of all there is no such thing as "good" people. We all have wicked, sinful hearts. Some of us are redeemed by the blood of Christ but our flesh still wars against our spirit and desires to sin. Second of all, when we ask questions like that we are often viewing things with tunnel vision. We are not looking for God's power and might in those times, at least not in the way God intends for us to look. Often we are looking for His power to show in taking the trial away. What we need to look for instead is His power in the hard.

When I think of our life this past 11 months, I see a lot of hard (I haven't even written about the half of it!). But I also see God's hand in mighty and powerful ways, whether that is through friends and family, His word, His peace, doctors and nurses...God didn't choose to take away a lot of the hard for my family this year, but if we purposefully look for His power even in the hard, we will always find it because it is always there. I've also learned that God is okay with me asking "why?" and lamenting to Him, as long as I don't stay in that pit and choose to seek out His truth.

I will ponder all Your work, and meditate on Your mighty deeds. Psalm 145:11

Praise Him for His mighty deeds; praise Him according to His excellent greatness! Psalm 150:2

For you, O Lord, have made me glad by Your work; at the works of Your hands I sing for joy.

 Psalm 92:4