The battle seems to Job to be getting ever hotter. It is a battle within and without, in his flesh and in his soul, and the worst part of it is in the soul. The worst of it is the attack of God on his mind and on his conscience, to accuse him and condemn him. How can he resist such an attack? If I pray to God, he implies, and I felt his presence, I couldn’t believe that was God, because he still sends these trials and it wouldn’t add up. I will believe God is hearing me when he removes all my trials and answers me the way I want here and now. But we cannot judge God like this. We must say, I trust him and whether he answers my prayer tomorrow in the way I want or not, I will still trust him. We should not have our spirits soaring and falling according to whether our prayers are answered here and now. That is wrong.
‘For the true remedy to comfort all our miseries is to feel how bountiful God is to us, and what riches of his goodness he pours out upon us … If we know this throughly, it is enough to remedy all temptations, so that we are able to take courage to call upon him, even when we are, as it were, in hell. Job knew these things well, but this affliction was so great and terrible, that it overwhelmed him. Therefore let us think carefully, and realise that God will punish us for our unthankfulness, if we do not take account of the benefits which he daily bestows on us, and it will take no great tribulation to overthrow us, but we will be dispatched out of hand as soon as we feel any little adversity’ (Calvin – English updated).