A Ready Grave

My spirit is broken; my days are extinct; the graveyard is ready for me. Surely there are mockers about me, and my eye dwells on their provocation.
Job 17:1-2
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A Ready Grave
Job confesses like so many others who have experienced tragedy, “My spirit is broken.”  There is no hiding the fact that Job is at his wits end.  His friends have been no help and in fact, have added to his pain.  God seems to be distant from Job by not relieving him, but at the same time laser focused on him by causing him so much turmoil. What is Job to do? What are any of us to do when faced with such dire circumstances?  Job is brought to the point of welcoming death. He has nothing to look forward to but the grave.  Yet God would not have us turn from Him, nor despair on account of our situation.  Instead, He reminds us to call on Him, to remember His promises to us, and have mercy, “Remember your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old” (Psalm 25:6). He reminds us to remember the pain and suffering Jesus endured for us, so that we could be reconciled to the Father. “Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted” (Hebrews 12:3). We are given the assurance that God never abandoned us nor forsakes His children, therefore we are to cling to Him and His promises, knowing that He will deliver us. And no matter the size of the storm our lives are caught up in, Christ is there for us with His love, mercy, and forgiveness.  He is there to quiet the storms. “And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm” (Luke 8:24).