Immediate Gratification

Job 6:8-9

“Oh that I might have my request, and that God would fulfill my hope, that it would please God to crush me, that he would let loose his hand and cut me off!.”

May 31, 2022

Have you ever been in a store when your child (or another person’s child) begins to throw a fit because he/she is not allowed to get something he/she wanted? Or have you given in (or seen another parent give in) simply to make the fit throwing stop? This scenario is played out over and over daily, whether we see it or not. We, as people, are given to self-centeredness, seeking to have our own desires gratified immediately. We become easily irritated when we are told no or have to wait.  Do you know that we do not even have the attention span of a goldfish anymore? We want everything to come to us easily and immediately.

Yet, there is goodness in not getting everything that we want. Take for instance the case of Job. Job had a rough patch. Everything went wrong. He lost his children. He lost his wealth. He lost his health. He was encouraged by his wife (whom I believe was speaking out of her own grief) to “curse God and die.” In fact, I have to wonder if she did not blame Job for the calamities that had befallen them. After all, it was his health that deteriorated, not hers. His response to her was that she spoke as one of the foolish women. While he did not curse God, he was requesting that God go forward and take his life. He wanted Him to end his misery – physically and emotionally.

In fact, it may be true that above all else, Job’s emotional pain was the most difficult to endure. Chronic physical pain can be mentally exhausting, but emotional pain has the potential to impact both physical and mental health as well. Job had experienced all three.  He is pleading with God in the presence of his friends to take his life.

His friends had nothing to offer other than that Job must be the root cause of all his suffering, because “only sinners suffer. Good people don’t suffer, Job.” At least, that appears to be their take on things.

Eventually, Job did get his wish, but not before the end of the story. In fact, it is the very last verse of the book in which Job dies “an old man and full of days.” Before all of that, he is confronted with the awesome majesty of who God is by God presenting Himself to Job in mighty ways, questioning him so that Job can get an accurate view of himself in the proper light of God.

I do not know what you are going through right now. I know some are experiencing exceptionally difficult hardships, while others are experiencing great joys. Regardless, might I offer that today would be a good day to thank God that He often does not grant us immediate gratification.  God knows that our wishes would often lead to us praising another god (namely ourselves) rather than worshipping and knowing the one, true, living God!