Job, whom God called a righteous man, was sick and tired of it all! In various ways, he and his family had been persistently attacked by the Enemy-to the point where Job believed the lie that God wanted to tear him down and leave him there. In addition to grueling circumstances, three of Job’s so-called friends came to heap their religious judgments onto Job’s broken body, heart, and soul. Job fought his friends’ efforts with the truth, but to no avail. They would not listen because they were blinded by religious pride, and self-righteous stubbornness!

When Job recognized that his friends would not hear the truth, he cried out that he wished to speak with the Almighty. Job knew that Almighty God was good, but in the midst of all his problems, he could not understand why God seemed to have left him in such a terrible predicament. Job’s wounded, angry heart blinded him, as the Enemy attempted to hold him captive in this hard place. Eventually, one of Job’s younger friends came and humbly spoke the truth that God is good and would not leave Job defeated or in the pit of destruction. In a small way, this helped Job feel more hopeful.

Then, at last, God showed up! Job repented by turning to God, humbling himself and listening as God revealed His powerful knowledge and wisdom regarding the plan of life. Because of his repentance, Job was able to release His anger and negative thinking to God, believing and seeing with spiritual eyes that God was just and would work out his life for good, not for evil.

God told Job’s three religious and self-righteous friends that they had not spoken the Truth about Him- the Great I AM. He asks Job to pray for these three friends who had become his enemies. Job had the freedom to obey God and to forgive and he chose to pray for the ones who had falsely come against him and hurt him. God then released Job from the captivity of the Enemy and blessed the end of Job’s life even more than the beginning.

If we stay angry with God about hard and seemingly unending and disappointing circumstances, we will become bitter and give Satan an opening to blind us to the truth that God loves us and is willing to bring us to a better place, heal our wounded hearts, while spiritually and emotionally working things out for our good, in spite of the bad things that have happened to us in life. When we hold on to our conscious or unconscious anger towards God, we either want to fight Him (blame, accuse) without working toward a resolve, or we pull away and stop praying. Neither of these choices will help us, but will keep us in bondage to our anger, and our hearts’ will become hardened.

In times of struggle when we are tempted to question God’s goodness, let us remember not to hold on to our anger toward God but to work it out and let it go by releasing through prayer, and putting it on Jesus. Satan will attempt to use anger toward God to hold us captive in our pride and to keep us from experiencing the victory, joy, and blessings that God ultimately has planned for all His true children.

“Surely I wish to speak to the Almighty, and I desire to argue and reason my case with God[that He may explain the conflict between what I believe of Him and what I see of Him]…And the Lord turned the captivity of Job and restored his fortunes, when he prayed for his friends; also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. And the Lord blessed the later days of Job more than his beginning” (Job13:3; 42:10,12a).

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17Marianne Dias, Connie Taylor and 15 others