Falling to the ground.. .is it in worship or in pain?

       ".....he fell to the ground in worship!"…Job 1:20

 

There is nothing unusual about this verse to understand because it's very common for us to fall on our knees and praise and worship! ! We all do it or have done it!
           But it's very uncommon and extremely difficult for us to fall down and "worship", especially just after hearing a series of losses and disasters!!
          Job is seen here doing just that!!
         Job lost everything...Everything!! His wealth, his property,his life-long earnings and most importantly his children….all ten of them, on a single day!!
       How great and unimaginable must be that loss!!

In a matter of some hours,he was informed about the losses that happened ,the disasters that had taken place and the deaths of his loved ones...one after the other! Hearing all this ,he got up, tore his clothes and shaved his head; an act of intense sorrow and pain! And then fell to the ground in worship!

      Job is described as a rich , righteous, God-fearing man!  He was blameless in the sight of God and men... described by God himself(Job 1:8) but then came the dramatic suddenness of his great trials. Job's falling down had immense pain which is totally understandable but it's different because it also involved worship...just hours after hearing a series of losses !!

      This verse is very hard for me to mimic. I had written this article and saved it in my draft on 24^th January,this year,with  my dad sitting next to me. Little did I know that exactly 2 months later, on 24^th of March, i wouldn’t have him with me,on earth!             And my response was nowhere next to Job’s! Infact I couldn’t bring myself to pray or praise or read the bible for months because I felt it wouldn’t have been genuine worship and God knows my heart! He knew i was in pain and it would have been a façade!

    But we happen to worship a God who completely understands us, knows us, gets our every emotion,wants us to come to him with all our raw, honest sadness and disappointments. He never expects us to be perfect and inhuman but wants us to approach him as we are,however we think, with all our doubts and insecurities. All he wants from us is to just approach him and have a relationship with him! And most importantly he will never leave us nor forsake us(Hebrews 13:5)!

       So...i , like many others, have definitely fallen on the ground, crying with a broken heart but never have I responded in worship as instant as Job. 

         Maybe i didn't publish it back then so that it could help me understand the character of Job and the maturity of his faith much better!He didn't worship God for the things God could offer but just because He is Sovereign God!! And also the certainty of God's character ,his unchanging and unfathomable love for us irrespective of our behaviour,our anxieties,our fears or our subjective feelings towards God. This Merciful and immensely Gracious God is taking care of us along with the entire universe and he is shaping us and preparing us for eternity! God is in control! And God is good!

             “Our faith is not a facade we erect to convince ourselves and others that pain doesn’t hurt—it is an oak tree that can withstand the storms of doubt and pain in our lives, and grow stronger through them.”

― Vaneetha Rendall Risner, The Scars That Have Shaped Me: How God Meets Us in Suffering