When believers experience vexation for long periods of time, they can feel stuck and not know what they should do. As I shared in part II of this devotional, we need to reclaim our identity in Christ and not allow people or the circumstances define who we are. In addition, we need to regain hope!
Regaining Hope
Then Job answered and said, How long will ye vex my soul, and break me in pieces with words?
These ten times have ye reproached me: ye are not ashamed that ye make yourselves strange to me. Job 19:1-3 (KJV)
Job was vexed in his soul as his friends continued to throw their fiery darts at him. Not only he had to go through the pain of losses, but he also had to listen to his friends condemning him for everything that was going wrong in Job’s life. Their words broke him down!
Chapter 19 of the book of Job continues with Job recounting his multitude of struggles and the fact that even his friends had turned against him. However, Job suddenly shifted his focus from speaking about his predicament to asserting his confidence in God!
Oh, that my words were written! Oh, that they were inscribed in a book! That they were engraved on a rock with an iron pen and lead, forever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth; and after my skin is destroyed, this I know, that in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. How my heart yearns within me! Job 19:23-27
Job did not waver in his faith and believed God was is his redeemer! This was so important to him that he ensured his declaration of God was written down and never forgotten. Job had the expectation and the hope that when it was all said and done, he was going to stand before a holy God and see Him face to face! He knew that all his issues, as painful as they were, someday were going to come to an end, and he was going to receive the most important thing, which was his redemption from this broken world.
Job looked to God when he was vexed by all kinds of circumstances, and he knew that the Lord ultimately would come through for him. In time, God restored Job’s life, and he regained much of what he had lost earlier.
Today, if you feel vexed by the circumstances of life, find scriptures that declare your victory and give you hope for your future. Exercise your faith by declaring what God says about you and your circumstances. Don’t let weariness shake your identity or cause you to give up on hope! Recognize that the enemy comes to steal and kill your hope, but hope is a gift that God gives in abundance. Below is a powerful scripture on hope to meditate on:
Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13
