Hope Amidst Suffering...Lesson Four

There are times when we are so confused and overwhelmed by the pain in our lives that we wish we could die. No matter what we do, we are powerless to change things for the better. The weight of the pain and sadness seems too heavy to bear. We can't see why our hearts don't just break and allow death to free us.
  Job felt that way. He'd lost everything, even though he had always done what was right. His ten children were dead. He had lost his business, his riches, and his health. And all this happened in a matter of days! He was left with a sharp-tongued wife and three friends who blamed him for his own misfortune. Job cried out, "If my misery could be weighed and my troubles be put on the scales, they would outweigh all the sands of the sea...Oh, that I might have my request, that God would grant my desire. I wish he would crush me. I wish he would reach out his hand and kill me...I don't have the strength to endure. I have nothing to live for. Do I have the strength of a stone? Is my body made of bronze? No, I am utterly helpless, without any chance of success" (Job 6:2-3, 8-9, 11-13).
  Job didn't know that the end of his life would be even better than the beginning. God eventually restored everything Job had lost, and then some. "Then he died, an old man who had lived a long, full life"(Job 42:17). Even when we we're pressed to the point of death, there is still hope that our lives will change. Our recovery could be so complete that the final lines written about us might read: "At last he or she died, after living a long, full life." We must remember: Life can be good again!

Bible Reading: Job 6:2-13