29:1-6 Job lamented for the simpler more joy-filled days of his life. It's easy, though not productive or helpful, to reminisce about easier times. But it is in the difficult ones that we truly grow and begin to utilize all of the benefits and tools of a relationship with God.
Even though it's difficult, it's more productive and healing to the soul to endure with faith through difficult seasons. It is wasteful to linger in wistfulness when we could be making spiritual progress. We should always have our eyes fixed forward because we have a progressive God. We have a savior; He does not return us to old situations, He carries us through to new, better ones.
29:7-17 Job missed how he was beloved and respected; understandably, he did not cherish his newfound position as the source of the town's negative gossip. Each of us yearn for times or opportunities where people will respect us and love us or at the very least, appreciate or acknowledge us. It does not always happen; people are frequently disrespectful and ungrateful. It is so important then to rely on God's opinion of you. It's so important to have a healthy level of appreciation for your own self and the quality of your own work.
Job had a strong and consistent relationship with God, one so great it was chosen to be an example, but Job still had areas of personal growth to develop. We all do. Our relationship with God does not make us perfect but if we utilize it well, it can make us better. We will learn to strengthen not only our faith but also our character.
29:18-20 Job had felt safe and secure in that space where he had only peace and abundance. The true depth and quality of a relationship with God is to learn to feel safe and secure in spaces when we feel the opposite of peace and abundance.
29:21-25 Job relished the wisdom others lauded him for, yet he did not fully appreciate that his present situation was fueling him with more wisdom, deeper wisdom: how to apply faith to the parts of life truly desperate for it. So often we ask for things from God like growth and wisdom but resist the methods He uses to fill those requests. From Job we learn that our relationship with God is very much a personal journey and one filled with directions we will not always understand at first. We do not always appreciate the path that leads to the clearing we had been praying for.
