{"id":7105,"date":"2020-01-10T20:00:28","date_gmt":"2020-01-11T03:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/?p=7105"},"modified":"2020-01-11T02:39:24","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T09:39:24","slug":"job7_1-21","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/job7_1-21\/","title":{"rendered":"When You Want To Ask God, \u201cWhy Me?\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Job 7:1-21 Click here for Bible Verses<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Job\u00a07:11\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-11:\u00a0\u00a0Long, difficult days (v1-2), sleepless nights (v3-4), deteriorating health (v5), an unsightly appearance (v5), feeling cut down during the prime of his life (v6), and utter hopelessness (v7-10) \u2013 that is Job\u2019s plight.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cTherefore,\u201d Job says, \u201cI will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.\u201d (v11)\u00a0\u00a0In other words, because life is so hard for Job, Job has had enough.\u00a0\u00a0He decides it is time to voice his complaint to God.\u00a0\u00a0Has life ever gotten so tough that you felt like you had to express your frustration to God?\u00a0\u00a0It is fine and in fact healthy to do so, but always with humility, remembering that God is God and we are not.<\/p>\n

Job 7:16-17 (NIV)\u00a0<\/strong>
\n16\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.
\n17\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention,<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 12-21:\u00a0\u00a0The rest of this chapter (v12-21) is Job beginning to question God.\u00a0\u00a0Job complains that his life is endless torment (v13-16), that he would rather die than keep on living this way.\u00a0He wonders why God needs to be so strict with him personally (v12) to the point of constantly testing them (v17-19).\u00a0\u00a0Job asks God what he has done to cause God to treat him this way\u2013 \u201cWhy have you made me your target?\u201d (v20).\u00a0\u00a0To paraphrase verse 21, \u201cWhy won\u2019t you show me just a bit of mercy before I die?\u201d.<\/p>\n

What can we learn from this?\u00a0\u00a0Job is asking the question so many of us ask when we go through more suffering than we think is warranted: \u201cWhy me, God?\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0In verses 17-18, Job asks in an angry, complaining way,\u00a0“What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention\u2026?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Centuries later, David would ask a similar question, but with a different attitude.\u00a0\u00a0Whereas Job asked it with a complaining attitude, David would ask with a grateful, \u201cI\u2019m-in-awe-at-Your-goodness\u201d attitude: \u201cwhat is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?\u201d (Psalm 8:4).<\/p>\n

This reminds me of Arthur Ashe, one of the greatest tennis players to ever live and the only black tennis player to win Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0One day Arthur, in the prime of his life, woke up and could not move his right arm.\u00a0\u00a0After a series of tests, the doctors discovered that Arthur Ashe had contracted HIV, most likely through a blood transfusion that he received a few years before.\u00a0\u00a0Five years later\u00a0Arthur would die of AIDS-related pneumonia, but not before he became a spokesman for the fight against AIDS.\u00a0\u00a0Once Arthur was asked, \u201cAren\u2019t you angry at God for what happened to you?\u201d\u00a0\u00a0Arthur, who was a Christian, responded,\u00a0\u201cIf I were to say, \u2018God, why me?\u2019 about the bad things, then I should have said, \u2018God, why me?\u2019 about the good things that happened in my life.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

Likewise, you might be inclined to ask God, \u201cWhy me?\u201d when you experience suffering.\u00a0\u00a0But to be fair, you should also God, \u201cWhy me?\u201d when you experience blessings.\u00a0\u00a0In the end I believe\u00a0there are far more \u201cWhy me?\u201d blessings that God allowed in your life<\/strong>\u00a0than \u201cWhy me?\u201d problems.<\/strong>\u00a0The greatest blessing is this: when we were sinners who had fallen short\u00a0of God\u2019s glory, God sent His Son Jesus Christ to die for our sins.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Heavenly Father, when life gets tough and I\u2019m inclined to ask \u201cGod, why me?\u201d about the difficult things, may I always remember to also ask \u201cGod, why me?\u201d about the good things You allowed in my life.\u00a0\u00a0In Jesus\u2019 name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs,<\/p>\n

Job\u00a07:11\u00a0(NIV)\u00a0
\n11\u00a0\u00a0“Therefore I will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On verses 1-11:\u00a0\u00a0Long, difficult days (v1-2), sleepless nights (v3-4), deteriorating health (v5), an unsightly appearance (v5), feeling cut down during the prime of his life (v6), and utter hopelessness (v7-10) \u2013 that is Job\u2019s plight.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cTherefore,\u201d Job says, \u201cI will not keep silent; I will speak out in the anguish of my spirit, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.\u201d (v11)\u00a0\u00a0In other words, because life is so hard for Job, Job has had enough.\u00a0\u00a0He decides it is time to voice his complaint to God.\u00a0\u00a0Has life ever gotten so tough that you felt like you had to express your frustration to God?\u00a0\u00a0It is fine and in fact healthy to do so, but always with humility, remembering that God is God and we are not.<\/p>\n

Job 7:16-17 (NIV)\u00a0
\n16\u00a0\u00a0I despise my life; I would not live forever. Let me alone; my days have no meaning.\u00a0
\n17\u00a0\u00a0“What is man that you make so much of him, that you give him so much attention,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7106,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7105"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7105\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7108,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7105\/revisions\/7108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}