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As Job continues to sit in his suffering, he understands one thing for sure: God is all-powerful. There is no doubt in Job's mind that God is above him and can do anything he pleases and no one can stop him. However, there is one issue that Job seems to struggle with: Is God good? Does He care for the people He created? Does He listen to their cries? Is He willing to respond to their hurts? The answer to that for Job seems to be "no." At the end of this chapter, Job seems to think the solution would be a mediator in between him and God...

What do you say when someone is hurting? If Job's friends teach us anything, they teach us what not to say. In this text, we find the beginning of some age-old cliches that we need to stop saying to people who are hurting.

Prolonged suffering is often devastating to our spiritual and emotional health. After weeks of suffering, Job questions why he was even born. What do we do when the pain of our suffering seems to outlast the perseverance of our faith?

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts, please call or text 988, help is available.

Additional resources:
https://988lifeline.org/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=onebox
samhsa.gov
nimh.nih.gov
1-800-662-4357

One infamous line, "Curse God and die!" has left Mrs. Job forgotten, vilified, or the butt end of jokes. Her lone sentence in the book does not show her in a good light. What are we to make of her? What is her connection to Job's suffering? Could there be more to her story?

Throughout the story of Job, we are given access not only to what is going on in the earthly realm but also behind-the-scenes access to what is going on in the heavenly realms regarding Job’s suffering. In this first chapter, we see Job endure some of the greatest of all suffering and respond to it in the most unexpected way.

One of the things that we often do whenever reading an account of the events in scripture is to imagine ourselves in the story. Looking for someone in the text that represents us, we can find someone that we can see ourselves in. However, if you are looking for yourself in the Easter story, you don’t have to look any further than Barabbas.

All of us wonder at times if our prayers do any good. James is convinced that the heart of God can be moved by the prayers of faithful people. Sick people can actually be made well, sinners can be forgiven, and prayer with confession can result in healing. The same God who answered Elijah’s prayer is eager to answer ours.

Life is hard, especially if you are trying to live for Jesus. Paul made it clear to the people he pastored, “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God.” James calls us to be patient because the coming of the Lord is near. However, it's not just about being patient, it's about perseverance because there is no salvation without perseverance.

James has some very severe words of warning for wealthy people (like us). He is especially harsh with those who have wealth they have hoarded. The questions for us are: How do you know you have enough? When does wise saving become excessive? What should we do to ensure James's warnings don’t come to pass for us?

On your tombstone, there is a birth date and a death date and the rest of your life is a dash in between. James teaches us that the dash goes fast, our life is but a mist, and our time here is short. This means we don’t have time to waste, and why wasting any opportunity to do good is a sin. We are presuming we will have another chance to do good tomorrow when we already have the opportunity to do good today.