Bible Passage: “How many wrongs and sins have I committed? Show me my offense and my sin. Why do you hide your face and consider me your enemy?” (Job 13:23-24 NIV)
Scripture Reading: Genesis 32:24-28
Charles Spurgeon was a 19th-century English minister known as “The Prince of Preachers,” whose biblical exposition and soaring rhetoric regularly drew crowds of over 10,000 to hear him preach. He was renowned for his faithfulness to God’s Word and respected as a godly man.
Yet this Prince was also a man with crippling depression issues that laid him low for weeks at a time.
One journal entry said:
“I was lying upon my couch during this last week, and my spirits were sunken so low that I could weep by the hour like a child, and yet I knew not what I wept for…”
Surely some men among us can relate.
Spurgeon’s journals are filled with his wrestling with God over his suffering, seeking meaning in the pain. It sounds an awful lot like Job, who spends chapter after chapter questioning, challenging, and venting to God in his hurt.
Job never crossed the line into cursing God, which Satan was sure would happen.
But that doesn’t mean Job was silent about what he suffered.
One of the greatest gifts Job gives to men is permission to wrestle with God.
That shouldn’t be strange; Jacob literally wrestled with God back in Genesis 32:24-28, and he wasn’t rebuked or struck down.
But something about the idea makes us nervous—if we revere God, it may feel weird to question or challenge Him, even when upset.
Yet Job’s lengthy complaints tell us otherwise. God doesn’t punish Job for his questions. He does not interrupt Job’s objections. And although later God will indeed speak to Job and challenge him back, the LORD does not vent anger against a man who is venting his pain.
Our God is a big God. He is supremely confident in who He is. He is not put off by a man’s honest questions, challenges, or feelings.
Indeed, modern counseling has caught up to a phenomenon that both God and His people model for us very clearly and well in Scripture:
It is both healthy and helpful for men to honestly feel, name, and talk about their feelings, whatever they may be. Happy or sad, light or heavy, God and His people regularly let their emotions out.
That’s not comfortable for many men, understandably. But one big lesson we can take away from Job is getting more comfortable with it.
Job wrestled with God and lived. We will too.
Prayer: Lord, sometimes I don’t like what is happening in my life. I won’t dishonor You, but I will admit that sometimes Your will doesn’t make a lot of sense, which I find frustrating and disorienting. Sometimes it makes me angry. And yet I trust You, even when it doesn’t make sense. Help me to wrestle through these things with You, and bring me through to the other side. Amen.
Reflection: Whatever you’re feeling today—good, bad, or otherwise—take some time to very honestly tell God how you’re feeling today.
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