Quick to Pray

Job 7:17 KJV

What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him?

Chapters six and seven comprise what is Job's response to Eliphaz. But a perhaps not so subtle distinction takes place between the chapters (remember that the chapter divisions were added much later.) in chapter six Job addresses Eliphaz but in chapter seven Job is speaking in prayer to God. So sudden and subtle is this shift that, if it were not for the chapter division a casual reader might not notice it happened. 

I attended a preaching conference earlier this week in which one of the speakers transitioned so suddenly from his introductory remarks to a prayer asking for God's blessing that it took me a moment to realize it happened. This takes place here in Job and I wonder if Eliphaz and the other friends might have been taken a but by surprise too?

This seems to me to be an excellent example of how near the believer's walk with God ought to be. Should it not be that we are near enough to God that we may turn to speak to him at any moment. In the intensities of struggle, we are often pressed to focus on the battle.

• The accuser
• The opponent
• The aggressor

becomes the center of our attention and that focus often causes us to lose sight of God's presence.

Moses, however, when accused, knelt to the ground and immediately began to pray. His attention was on God and not the accuser. Nehemiah, when pressed by the king why his countenance was sad, prayed to the God of heaven. His attention was on a god and not the king.

To walk with a God:

• As Moses did
• As Nehemiah did and
• As Job did

That us our goal.