God is Waiting on Us [Job 10]

³'Is it right for You indeed to oppress,
         To reject the labor of Your hands,
         And to look favorably on the schemes of the wicked?
    ⁴'Have You eyes of flesh?
         Or do You see as a man sees?
    ⁵'Are Your days as the days of a mortal,
         Or Your years as man's years,
    ⁶That You should seek for my guilt
         And search after my sin?
    ⁷'According to Your knowledge I am indeed not guilty,
         Yet there is no deliverance from Your hand.
    ⁸'Your hands fashioned and made me altogether,
         And would You destroy me?

¹²'You have granted me life and lovingkindness;
         And Your care has preserved my spirit.
    ¹³'Yet these things You have concealed in Your heart;
         I know that this is within You:
    ¹⁴If I sin, then You would take note of me,
         And would not acquit me of my guilt.
    ¹⁵'If I am wicked, woe to me!
         And if I am righteous, I dare not lift up my head.
         I am sated with disgrace and conscious of my misery.

Finally, Job talked to God about his situation. I can just imagine that God in his love and compassion for Job rejoiced in this moment! God patiently waited for Job to connect with Him in his pain. This chapter reminds me of David's Psalms and of Habakkuk's questions at the beginning of his story.

God welcomes our honest questions. He waits patiently for us to get to the point where we will connect with Him in our situations. I realized yesterday that I am pretty good at taking the big stuff (the Job times) of life to God whether it is about me or someone else. However, I can miss God in the small stuff in my life as well as in dealing with others. Yesterday, I arrived at Bible study self-focused and whining about a fairly insignificant issue that was significant to me. As I whined to two of my friends, one gave me advice that wasn't really helpful for my situation and the other laughed that I even thought it was a problem. I walked into the class just as self- focused as I was when I walked into church. That was when I realized that I was in pain and that my friends missed a chance to get me focused back on God. Both of these ladies are growing and godly women and through this, we all learned a valuable lesson in inviting God into the small stuff and being better friends.

I walked away with two new thoughts about friendship. One is that when someone is in pain even over what appears to be silly stuff, the fact is that they are in pain and they need to connect with the Lord in that pain. No pain is insignificant and without God we are stuck in a flesh focused place trying to solve our problems on our own. Second, as I develop a closer relationship with God, I can be in a better place to embrace my friend in whatever pain she is feeling and ask God how can I minister to my friend by His grace? What words do I use? How can I get her/him connected with You, God, so that You can meet her/him at the point of her/his need?

As I consider this friend thing, it came to mind that there are a lot of other applications of this connecting people to God in their pain no matter how insignificant it may seem. What would this look like in a marriage, between a parent and a child, in dealing with elderly parents, in work relationships etc.? Already I can see how God can make a difference in my relationship with my husband and with my mother who lives with us. I know I have ignored others' pain when I think it is silly in all of my relationships. I am beginning to see that if something matters to someone I love, by God's grace, it can matter to me and make me a better wife, parent, daughter, co-worker etc. as I am willing enter into that pain with them and minister with God's grace.

We praise You, Lord, that You are a God of lovingkindness and that You welcome our questions and are always there to minister to us in our pain. Open our eyes to the many times we are ignoring our own pain over small things and the pain that others are feeling because we think it is insignificant. Enable us to remember that You are always the One who will perfectly meet us at the point of every pain and to go to You in those times.

Beth Warlick, 1/20/2011