1. Read Job Chapter 3 together. Take time for some initial reflection about the passage:

a. What do you notice? Did anything stand out to you as the passage was read?

b. What questions do you have about this passage?

c. Did you find anything encouraging? Surprising? Confusing? Challenging?

2. The genre that this passage is written in is Ancient Hebrew Poetry. Poetry uses metaphor and imagery to not only communicate ideas creatively, but also to evoke feeling.

a. Work together to try to summarize the main ideas that Job is expressing in these words of lament. What is Job saying here?

b. Take time to notice and discuss some of themes found in this passage. What does it say about darkness and light? Creation? Death? Peace?

c. What feelings does this poetry evoke as you read it?

3. Can you relate at all to the words Job has spoken in chapter 3?

a. Has a diQicult or painful season ever caused you to question your beliefs?

b. Have you ever cried out with despair?

c. Do you think Job’s pain, reflected in this passage, rings true to the human experience of suQering?

4. Read Job 1:20-22 and Job 2:9-10. Reflect together on the surprising gap between Job’s faith, expressed in these verses, compared to the deep despair reflected in Job 3

a. Do you think Job can still be considered righteous? Why or why not?

b. What evidence do we have that faithful Christians can experience times of despair?

c. What wisdom does the bible oQer about what to do in times of suQering? (hint: consider the Psalms; consider the words of Jesus on the cross)

d. How do you think prayers of Lament can be helpful to us as we move through painful seasons of life?



5. What laments might you need to pray in this season of your life, either for yourself, or for those around you? 

a. Do you find it easy or diQicult to pray prayers of lament?

b. Is it diQicult for you to believe that this is a good and helpful practice?

c. What is one thing you can do to make prayers of lament a more regular part of your life with God?

Pray for each other out of the items discussed. Take some time to lament together, using one (or all) of the following options:

1. Cry out to God about the struggles you are facing

2. Cry out to God on behalf of those around you who are suGering

3. Take time to lament the broader brokenness that you see in the world around you

4. Pray some Psalms of Lament together (ie: Psalm 13, 31, 42, 86). Use the words of the Psalms as prayers to help you acknowledge, in a general way, the pain and diGiculties that we, and others, face.

5. If someone in your group is going through a particularly diGicult time, and if they would like you to, take some extended time to pray for them