Today we finish the last day of this brief series exploring hardship through the book of Job. One of the most common ways that we respond in hardship is to look for quick fixes. Millions of books are sold each year because they promise quick fixes. Parenting troubles? No problem, just count to three and your children will behave! Financial problems? Pay me to solve them for you! Every gimmick out there is based on our thirst for quick fixes in hardship.
In the book of Job, his friends give him all kinds of unhelpful responses. Doing this series has actually made me realize that we study the book of Job completely backwards. Instead of focusing on what happens to Job, we should take it as a lesson in how NOT to respond to our friends when they are suffering. In Job 22:21-30, Job’s friend Eliphaz takes another stab at “helping” by offering very spiritual-sounding quick fixes.
A far less glamorous approach to hardship is to seek the face of God. Quite the opposite of a quick fix, God offers eternal fixes. He’s not always in a hurry to end your hardship. This is not because he is harsh, but rather because he does not see hardship as a problem. It’s part of the journey. Job realizes this in the last chapter of the book as he sits with God and realizes he was wrong about God after all.
Life involves suffering. Jesus came to voluntarily suffer. It was the path to the eternal fix. If you are facing grief, loss, pain, or hardship, seek the face of God. Just keep sitting with him, seeking to know him, seeking to find him everywhere. It moves the focus from temporary to eternal.