Good Grief (5)

After this Job opened his mouth and cursed the day of his birth. Job 3.1

Very great suffering
Job’s cursing the day of his birth is certainly understandable. He had lost his children and all his property. He was stricken in his body with a horrible, wasting disease. His wife, out of her own deep sorrow, rebuked him. And his prospects for redress and restoration were slim to none. Yes, he overstated his grief by invoking a curse on the day of his birth, but I rather suspect the Lord would not have rebuked him for that.

Job’s suffering was, indeed, very great (Job 2.13). Probably few of us have ever experienced so much hardship at one time. His was a grief occasioned by loss and disappointment, and enveloped in a kind of hopelessness that would grow as his trial continued. It is the continuation of trials and suffering that can plunge us into deep valleys of sorrow, where despair is a constant temptation.

We have all known various kinds of trials and sufferings, and all trials and sufferings bring pain and sorrow. What we don’t need on such occasions are friends like Job’s, who have our “problem” all figured out and are determined to forestall our grieving by getting us to see things their way. What we need instead is space to grieve and time to wait on the God of all comfort to renew our strength and our hope.

But we must be careful as we grieve to guard against any vain affections such as self-righteousness, vengefulness, or resentment. Job failed at this point in his grieving, and it took a powerful intervention by God to return him to his senses.

Sovereignty and suffering
A common mistake that people make when they come to various trials is to think that somehow God is out to get them. Either He wasn’t watching and so couldn’t keep us from our suffering, or He had it in for us somehow. And so we cry out, “Why, Lord!”

This is where Job was, and his grief would grow deeper the longer his pain and confusion persisted, ultimately rising to indignation and anger at God for refusing to answer his cries. Job’s cry, “Why, Lord!” was never answered, at least, not as he demanded.

In times of suffering, it may not be our privilege to know why. We must learn to be content in the Lord in every situation, so that even as we sorrow in suffering, we are anchored to the peace and joy only knowing God can bring.

But there is some validity to that cry, because nothing happens to us outside the scope of God’s sovereign power and will. Paul reminds us that God works all things according to the counsel of His will, and this includes the trials and sufferings we occasionally endure (Eph. 1.11). Job understood that, too; but rather than rest in God’s sovereign power and infinite wisdom, and wait for the Lord to restore, if not his prosperity and progeny, at least his peace, Job let the grief of his suffering and his disappointment with his friends get the best of him. He demanded that God explain the reason for this pain. He insisted that he would stand before the Lord of heaven and earth and hold Him to account for causing a good man to suffer.

When trials or suffering befall us, we must surely grieve. But we must not allow our grieving to lead us to presume. We cannot always know the mind of God in such matters, any more than Job could. But though we may not be able to penetrate the mysteries of the eternal will of God at such times, we can know God and rest in Him, so that we find in Him the comfort, assurance, lovingkindness, and hope that we need in the midst of our trials and suffering. When trials come, we rejoice in the Lord and the hope of glory, even as we grieve for the duration of suffering we must endure (Rom. 5.3-5).

Responding to suffering and trials
The way to do this is to receive all our trials and suffering with thanksgiving and praise to God. Remembering that the God we fear and love, loves us with an everlasting and unchanging love, we can always find reasons to give thanks, as we fix our hope again, not on our fickle circumstances, but on our unchanging God. It may take courage to rejoice in the face of trials, but if we concentrate on fearing and loving God, and giving Him thanks in every situation, hope will prevail, courage will blossom, and we will rejoice in the Lord as we suffer.

When the pain and sorrow of suffering descend upon us, we may certainly expect to grieve for our situation. However, even as we grieve, if we give thanks to God and persist in praising and waiting on Him, we will find strength from God to bear up under our trials in a way that transforms and renews us through them (cf. Jms. 1.2-4; Rom. 5.3-5).

Through thanksgiving and praise, even in the midst of sorrow and pain, we may renew hope and all the power of hope to realign our thoughts, renew our hearts, strengthen our resolve, and keep us on a course of seeking God’s glory and living to that glory in every aspect of our lives.

The grief and sorrow that come with trials and suffering are good grief, but we must guard against our grief leading us to bitterness, presumption, resentment, or rebellion against God. Grief of any kind should signal us to seek the Lord in praise and thanksgiving, so that even as we grieve, we are renewing hope and increasing the likelihood that God Himself, the Father of all comforts (2 Cor. 1.3, 4), will meet us amid our good grief and enfold us with His glory.

Trials and suffering need not lead us into despair. Instead, they may be received as gifts from the Lord, designed to more deeply engage all the affections of our heart and to strengthen our soul for greater service in His Name.

For reflection
1.  Is it true that trials and suffering can be good for us? In what ways? Share from your own experience.

2.  God did not answer Job’s demand, but Job ended up being at peace (Job 42). What did God do for Job during this time to help him receive his sufferings in peace?

3.  Meditate on Psalm 22. How can you see rejoicing and thanksgiving amid suffering here? Compare this with Hebrews 12.1, 2. What should we learn from the example of Jesus?

Next steps – Preparation: How can you prepare daily for trials or suffering? What can you do so that, if these should befall, you will be able to bear them up with good grief?

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.