Job 10:20

20 Are not my days [yowm] few [ma`at]? Cease [chadal] [chadal] then, and let me alone [shiyth] [shiyth], that I may take comfort [balag] a little [ma`at], KJV-Interlinear

20 'Would He not let my few days alone? Withdraw from me that I may have a little cheer, NASB

Most people who read the book of Job, relate to his suffering because they have social problems, marital problems, financial problems, medical problems, or they are just plain getting old.

Of all of the problems that you can be faced with in life, most come and go in time, with the exception of old age. You are sort of stuck with that one, as there is no cure.

In old age, the functions of the body just aren't what they used to be. Your muscles and joints ache, your organs don't work quite like they used to, even various problems such as cancers and things manifest themselves, making life more difficult and frustrating.

When you are twenty, you are bullet proof and invincible. You are ready to conquer the world with both feet leaping toward what you know is 'certain' success.

When you are much, much older, you wonder where all of that invincibility vanished to, and now your feet are being fitted for a coffin. A rather disgusting and disturbing thought.

Where has time gone? What has your life come to mean? What do you have to show for it all?

Most people will look at the things they have accumulated in life. Their bank accounts, their investments, their property, their achievements, and so forth. All things that are temporary worldly ingredients. And what they should have been doing all of those years, is reading their Bibles just a few minutes a day, every day, building up real assets for eternity.

Instead we spend our time checking the pill prescriptions.

Job here, demonstrates to us all, that when life falls all around you, and your reward is suffering, because that is all this world will give you, and that is all that whatever you have from this life, really is, then as you draw nearer to your end, your tears and cries are directed toward God, to whom you should have been talking all those years.

The plea goes up for just a little break from the pressures of life. Be those pressures of a temporary nature, or some of a more permanent nature.

But here again, most people focus on their problems, rather than on the solution.

When you whine and cry over the spilled milk in your life, that really isn't going to get it back for you. Better to clean up the mess and go get some more milk, using a little more care this time, so you don't spill any more.

And that is the lesson we should all learn. As long as you are alive and breathing, God has a plan for your life. You access His plan by getting started in your daily study of His word. Whining gets you nothing. Whining is just another excuse for doing nothing.

It doesn't matter whether you have hours, years, or decades to live. Your genuine attitude is what counts.

Gods plan for you, is to grow up in your spiritual life. You provide the positive attitude, and God will do the rest. Everything, repeat, everything else in life is nothing more than peripheral details.

To ask God to withdraw, in order for you to have some peace and relief is a contradiction of truth. God is the source of peace and security, and happiness. If God were to withdraw, then your misery would increase out of control exponentially.

But as Job states here, for our benefit, most folks ask for the wrong things. 'God, please leave me alone,' is the worst possible prayer that anyone could have. 'God, please help,' is a much better approach to relief.

The next two verses will make this very, very clear.

Now is the time to post a prayer.