Devotion Corner
Job 6:10 Then should I yet have comfort; yea, I would harden myself in sorrow: let him not spare; for I have not concealed the words of the Holy One.
Devotions are meant to be full of praise. Yet true devotion is the holding to faith even when a song of praise feels as though it’s been choked by the tears of a painful event. No one outside of Jesus Christ, knew the immensities of sufferings of life quite like Job.
Job here is deeply troubled and in the deepest of despairs. He is blind as to why all the varied calamities have come to him. That not knowing ‘why’ such awful events are unfolding, can be the most destructive element of the awful situation.
Job’s heart is weary and beaten, fumbling for answers to his calamity. And so his thought is to attempt to shield himself from the pain and suffering that he is experiencing, through the ‘hardening’ of himself.
This is easily done in such awful times. As we go through horrible situations that seemingly have no rhyme or reason to them, to wrestle some control back from the chaos we ‘harden’ ourselves to life. We withdraw from the world and from those around us. We become cold and distant. This choice is made in both fear and pride. Fear over what other miseries may affect us, and pride in the thought that we can be our own sanctuary in future hard times.
Yet as Job was to discover, the hardening of our hearts to protect ourselves from woundings, yields nothing but further pain and despair. We must show true devotion to God in such times. That means the refusal to harden our hearts in our sorrows. Instead, we are to pour out our troubled hearts to God in trust that He will not turn us away in our need. To ask ourselves, do we truly believe that God is tender and gracious to a broken heart? Or do we quietly live trusting in our own capacity to protect and heal ourselves from the inevitable pains of life? Such a question is only answered in times of testing and trial.
In such times, we will find that our faith is anchored not in our ability to see us through the storm, but in the faithfulness of Christ Jesus to shelter us always. When we stand firm in the face of despair and take our battered heart to Christ, we are performing one of the greatest acts of faith imaginable. We are living our humility; we are living our submission to Him. We are living our faith that He is meek and gracious, just as He has declared Himself to be throughout all His written Word.
Job did not conceal the words of the Holy One (Job 6:10), and those same eternal words, would be the words that would heal his broken heart. Those same words, are the healing to our hearts also, if we keep them soft ready to receive the peace of Christ Jesus. Amen.
