Job 23:1-17 KJV
1 Then Job answered and said,
2 Even to day is my complaint bitter: my stroke is heavier than my groaning.
3 Oh that I knew where I might find him! that I might come even to his seat!
4 I would order my cause before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.
5 I would know the words which he would answer me, and understand what he would say unto me.
6 Will he plead against me with his great power? No; but he would put strength in me.
7 There the righteous might dispute with him; so should I be delivered for ever from my judge.
8 Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him:
9 On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him:
10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
11 My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.
12 Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food.
13 But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
14 For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.
15 Therefore am I troubled at his presence: when I consider, I am afraid of him.
16 For God maketh my heart soft, and the Almighty troubleth me:
17 Because I was not cut off before the darkness, neither hath he covered the darkness from my face.

Ever need to talk to someone you knew or know and you can not reach them. Social media has made it easier to find people that you have not seen in years or even months, maybe even decades. People move, people get side tracked for whaterver reason or the thought I will return and I will catch up with old friends and it never happens or no one around when you do return. Whatever the reason is, it seem like emptiness of wish you could relive a time period with old friends. Maybe even know that whatever you feel is missing in your life that you need to relive some memories that when you do find them you find their world and yours is no longer the same, but the memories are dear. Yet those memories relived to long might change one's welcomed. Job had been through a really rough patch in his life and was still going through the biggest storm of his life. He knew who God was, he understood that God was in control of the world, including his, but he like to go to the throne of God and plead his case as if he was man. He wanted to go to the throne of God much like the people of Babel. He wanted to reach God his way and not so much kneel and pray. Not so much prostrate before God and seek him. He wanted to go to the throne room of God and plead with him as a man face to face so he could fix the problem and remove the struggle from his life.

Nothing wrong with desiring your way, it when we think our way will change the ways of God. We have to meet God his way, through prayer, and through faith. To obey the word of God is to keep his commandments. Keep his ways and not try and do things our own way. Here Job is seeking to be in God's presence and not in the format of prayer. Wanting it his way to try and persuade God into changing his situation. After all he had boils on his feet. He lost his children and his wife was nagging him along with three friends. He wanted to meet God in his power to do so and not allow God to use his power to speak to his heart and mind about the situation. He felt he was not cut off from the darkness that loomed over his life at the present. He did not stop Job from seeing the horrors of the world around him.

There are times when we want to say stop in the middle of situation and we can not. If one is in a wreck and you want it to go away, it will not change you laying upside down in your car and discovering the car is totaled. It will not change the pain from what seems from hell. Life goes on through the pasage of time. Job situation was his life was wrecked, all he worked for was now gone. He had felt the misery of loss, the missery of illness, the misery of loss of all his possessions except for the tent his wife was in. And yet he could not stand in the presence of God on his terms.

Who is Job to demand anything from God. Much less a meeting because he thought God did not understand his situation. God had allowed his situation but Job knew not this. To reach the God of heaven we can not by our own means but the way God has directed, through prayer by faith. Faith that he hears our cry our tribulations and see our situation as we are and not as we are not.

God seen the cross afar off and yet he allowed his Son to go to the cross, seen his suffering, his pain and seen the glorious resurrecion to come. Our resurrection after the storm, to be restored must come with faith, believe God is able to repair our life whether we deserve his repair work or not. To allow God to allow our suffering for the purpose God may be teaching us something through the situation. I am not a rich person, but I know both God's mercy, grace and the storm of my life and my faith. How hard it is to praise him for the small things in the storm, and how joy can be made in the storm by just the little things that come our way. However we do need to exam our life to make sure what happening is not because of sin. It may not be because of sin, but best to let God show you whether it is.

In the chapter before Eliphaz the Temanite felt Job just need to repent, that God would be his defence and he be rich again. He felt his friend had sinned in someway or had forsaken God. He was to pray, God would hear and he have to pay his vow and it be okay. Sounds like the health and wealth ministers of the nineties. In truth It not what Job had done, but he felt he did not deserving suffering because he was a man of faith. Can we expect God to hear us if we seeking our own way to approach him. God wants us to come in prayer, but Jobs trouble came from the devil testing him, not from God. We know this from the first several chapters of Job. His was addressing his problem as his friend was as he had done something terribly wrong.

Our trouble in this life is not always from disobedience it not because of faith, but is a test of our faith. Can we trust God to take us through the struggle. It is hard going through the struggle, but to rely God is going to provide is a greater journey. To trust that God is going to be through the storm is even greater. To know people starve for many reason and to know God provision in storms of many of his people, only should establish more hope to those in need, but instead sometimes the reaction is anger, resentment, and not able to cope with the problems we face.

How do you face a storm with prayer. Praying and seeking God his way even when we are angry. Even when the trouble is not ours but caused by the enemy. We must stand guard in our faith knowing the enemy seeks to destroy. Our faith must be to overcome in the storm. To hold to the hope that faith has given through salvation.

Dear Heavenly Father, help us to trust and to pray to you in the storm of our life, help us to allow you to heal our anger and the mess in our life. Help us Lord to trust in you. In Jesus precious name, Amen.

Continual Scripture Study: Job 22:23-30 KJV
23 If thou return to the Almighty, thou shalt be built up, thou shalt put away iniquity far from thy tabernacles.
24 Then shalt thou lay up gold as dust, and the gold of Ophir as the stones of the brooks.
25 Yea, the Almighty shall be thy defence, and thou shalt have plenty of silver.
26 For then shalt thou have thy delight in the Almighty, and shalt lift up thy face unto God.
27 Thou shalt make thy prayer unto him, and he shall hear thee, and thou shalt pay thy vows.
28 Thou shalt also decree a thing, and it shall be established unto thee: and the light shall shine upon thy ways.
29 When men are cast down, then thou shalt say, There is lifting up; and he shall save the humble person.
30 He shall deliver the island of the innocent: and it is delivered by the pureness of thine hands.