Life is Worth Living

Job 7:1, 3-4
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div.
© 2007 Harold Dinsmore

             “Human life is…like a life of hard manual labor…month after month I have nothing to live for, night after night brings me grief.  When I lie down to sleep, the hours drag; I toss all night and long for dawn.” (GNB).

               Many of us have felt the despair of depression much like God’s servant Job.  National statistics published a few years ago showed that 12% of our population is severely depressed and at least 50% of Americans experience some depression on a regular basis.  So just what is depression?

               Most depression is a direct result of unresolved life stresses.  Since one of the symptoms of stress is depression, we as believers need to understand the scriptural principles in relieving and handling stress.  Job was quite a guy.  He was rich beyond Bill Gates or Donald Trump.  He had everything going for him.  And to top it all off, he was a man of God.  “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” Job 1:8).  To God, he was an example of faith and commitment.  There was no one like Job  in all the earth according to God (He ought to know, don’t you think?)  He was so sure of Job’s trust and commitment, that he was willing to allow Satan to test him.