16th October 2025

16th October 2025


Pray (ACts) 


Read (Job 7) 


Message (Scott Woodburn)


Do you ever listen to your prayers? That might sound like an odd question but what I mean is how real are your prayers? Do you tell the Lord all is fine even when your heart is broken? Do you go through the motions just to tick the box of prayer? If we were to listen to the cry of Job in chapter seven we would not find one inch of pretend. Job has found no help in his friends and so he returns to looking up.


Life is not all ice cream and rainbows and Job knew it. Sometimes our days are “hard service” (7v1), like a slave working all day in the sun and never seeing shade (7v2) and like a man whose wages don’t seem to reach his bank account (7v2b). Indeed, Job knew all too well that often our months are filled with “emptiness” (7v3) and when we take to our bed the night is full of misery (7v3b).


Job had lost everything and in his basic everyday experience there was only trouble. His nights were filled with sleeplessness (7v4), he was dirty from his months sitting in the ashes (7v5) and the awful skin disease that he was afflicted with would ease before a new outbreak would come (7v5b). If Job’s nights were long then his days were swift but they never ended with any hope or good news (7v6). As Job contemplated his awful condition he pondered the brevity of life (7v7). Our years are short indeed and Job wondered if his life would soon come to an end. The one who looked for Job would see him no more and even with God’s eyes upon Him, he might soon be gone (7v8). Job understood that there was a finality about the grave - no one who goes to the grave returns to his own home (7v10).


How did Job respond to his bleak assessment of the human condition? By crying out to the Lord (7v11). Why had Job’s life been so harshly interrupted - was he a danger to the stability of the universe like some mythical sea monster (7v12)? Even in his sleep he found no comfort but only awful dreams and visions (7v13-14). His condition was so awful that Job would prefer being strangled to death than another minute of life (7v15-16), indeed he states “I loathe my life”


There is a wonderful Psalm which asks “what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?”(Psalm 8v4). We are such frail creatures and yet the Lord adores us. But Job offered his own version of Psalm 8 saying “What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, visit him every morning and test him every moment?” (7v17-18). In his agony Job did not see life as a gift but inquired how long the weight of God’s holy gaze would be upon him (7v19). Would the Lord not look away for a moment? Would the Lord not leave him alone until he could swallow his spit?  


We have already heard Job asking “why” in chapter three and he does so again at the end of chapter seven. What have I done to you (7v20a)? Why am I your target (7v20b)? Why am I a burden to you (7v20c)? Why will you not forgive me (7v21)? There is no pretence in Job’s cry - he loves the Lord but cannot fathom why his life has fallen apart and so he cries aloud.


Brothers and sisters, we are incredibly polite in our prayers and let it be said that it is good to remember who it is we are talking to. But Scripture often gives us glimpses of searingly honest prayer which is rarely heard in our churches. When we are wondering, when we are angry and when we feel forsaken, we can and should call upon the Lord. Fear Him, approach Him rightly and in your anger do not sin (Ephesians 4v26) but equally do not be afraid to drop all falsehood and be honest with the Lord.


Life is so mysteriously hard at times and so there is a place for anguished tearful lament in the Christian walk. If your heart is broken, stop pretending all is well and call upon the Lord - he cares for you (1 Peter 5v7).


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC


Q101 What do we pray for in the first petition?
In the first petition, which is, Hallowed be thy name,” we pray, that God would enable us, and others, to glorify him in all that whereby he maketh himself known, and that he would dispose all things to his own glory.
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