August 31: On earthly discouragement and Godly confidence

Job 37:1-39:30

2 Cor 4:13-5:10

Psalm 44:9-26

Proverbs 22:13

Have you ever been discouraged?  I get discouraged a lot - mostly about myself, my shortcomings as a husband and a father, my frequent and repetitive inability to be the man I aspire to be, my recidivist sinfulness EVEN when I know the sin, I know it is sin, and I want to avoid it.  So in the context of my chronic discouragement, it was so interesting to see how well the Psalm today tied into the story of Job.  

"But now You [God] have rejected and humbled us;

   you no longer go out with our armies...

 You gave us up to be devoured like sheep

   and have scattered us among the nations."

And all this has come about "though we [in this case, either the psalmist or Job] had not forgotten you; we had not been false to your covenant."

Why does God sometimes seem to turn His back on us, however we might seek Him?  Has He really turned away?  Is He no longer aware of our conditions?  The answer, intellectually, is "no".  And God shows us, through Job, that He does, in fact, remember us.  Job suffered much, but through it all, God was watching, and when Job complained and cried out, God answered.  And in His words we read today, He makes it clear He is - as so eloquently put by the inimitable John Lennon and Paul McCartney - "Here, There, and Everywhere".  

Which is why, as Saint Paul says, "we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day."  We can take comfort from the fact that "our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all" - though we may understand neither the why suffering is necessary, or how the glory is to be achieved.  We can be confident because, when we learn to recognize them, we see evidence of God everywhere in our lives - the God "who has fashioned us for this [for His!] very purpose", and "who has given us the Spirit as a deposit, guaranteeing" - GUARANTEEING!!! - "what is to come."

It is confidence in His perfect love and perfect wisdom, in His complete control, that we can willingly "face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered."  And with this confidence, we are able to shrug aside our discouragement and carry on.