I am always interested in what my devotional reading brings to my attention. The past few days I have struggled with some internal issues and I have needed to pray but haven’t found the right words. Today, I read about Job.
Then Job answered: “I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all. Have windy words no limit? Or what provokes you that you keep on talking? I also could talk as you do, if you were in my place; I could join words together against you, and shake my head at you. I could encourage you with my mouth, and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.“If I speak, my pain is not assuaged, and if I forbear, how much of it leaves me? Surely now God has worn me out; he has made desolate all my company. And he has shriveled me up, which is a witness against me; my leanness has risen up against me, and it testifies to my face. He has torn me in his wrath, and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me. They have gaped at me with their mouths; they have struck me insolently on the cheek; they mass themselves together against me. God gives me up to the ungodly, and casts me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, and he broke me in two; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target; his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys, and shows no mercy; he pours out my gall on the ground. He bursts upon me again and again; he rushes at me like a warrior. I have sewed sackcloth upon my skin, and have laid my strength in the dust. My face is red with weeping, and deep darkness is on my eyelids, though there is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure. “O earth, do not cover my blood; let my outcry find no resting place. Even now, in fact, my witness is in heaven, and he that vouches for me is on high. My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, that he would maintain the right of a mortal with God, as one does for a neighbor. -Job 16:1-21 (NRSV)
Here we have Job suffering and feeling low. He has just been the object of another vicious attack from Eliphaz. How much more can he take?
Sometimes we feel like that and we tend to switch off from spiritual things. Eliphaz accused Job of having no devotion to God (v 4). But underneath it all Job was proving the power of prayer.
How can Job possibly pray in his terrible situation? The clue could be in Romans 8:26:
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
His outward appearance is getting worse, but God is looking at him on the inside. I have been at this point. I have needed to pray but have had no idea what to say. Then it seems it just pours out of me.
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