JOIN THE GLOBAL EFFORT PRAYING FOR SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

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Do you feel you are ever under spiritual attack? Or do you feel you just can't seem to become good enough for God to hear your prayers? Read today's devotional from The Return and become encouraged to press forward:

https://thereturn.org/2020/08/11/day-48-you-matter-greatly-to-god/

The enemy comes roaring like a flood against saints who have no part in darkness.

PRAY FOR A GREAT AWAKENING!

2 Chronicles 7:14

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“If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from Heaven and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

Pray with me for a national great awakening. Pray believing it can happen again, just as it did in the 1700’s; urgently pleading for God to move in our time as well.

Have a blessed day…

Please pray with me and so many others...

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We are praying for a great awakening in our day. As you go before The Father, remember The Son intercedes for us before the throne, and The Spirit utters groanings too deep for us to put into words. Here is a devotional from The Return team to encourage your intercession for our country:

https://thereturn.org/2020/08/06/day-45-called-tested-and-purposed-by-god/

Have a blessed day…

I am departing from a blog through September 26 to point people to pray

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I ask that you consider praying for our nation to RETURN to God in repentance in seeking healing for our nation. There is a national movement which God may use to help guide Believers toward such. Here is a link for a daily devotional to encourage you to pray for our country:

https://thereturn.org/2020/08/05/day-44-learning-to-speak-well-of-others/

Let’s pray believing and watch God work!

“…without Him nothing was made…” John 1:3b

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The Word has always been with God… even from the beginning of earthly time (v.2). Though this person known in Heaven as The Word of God (Re. 19:13) is the very same Word that John described in verses 1-2. He has always existed in community with God, The Father and God, The Holy Spirit. You may be asking how this occurs? Jesus taught that since the creation, God’s invisible qualities – His eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen through what was made (Romans 1:20).

For example: look at a peach. When you first see the fruit, it is recognized by its color and shape. However, if you remove the skin – the outer layer, what do you have? You still have that piece of fruit… but, it’s still recognizable, just through a different sensory cue, like color or texture… or even taste! Once you’ve removed the fruit’s pulp, what is left? The center that’s left contains the fruit’s seed. That peach is made up of three components: the skin, the fruit pulp, and the seed(s). All of them combine to make what is recognized and named appropriately for what it is.

When you eat the pulp of the peach and someone asks you what you are eating, most would say, “I’m eating a peach.” Not many would say they were eating ‘peach pulp’ or the meat of the peach. So, perhaps the peach may be one of God’s ways He created to reveal the invisible qualities of His triune nature: The Father, Who may be the center of the God-head; The Son, Whose martyred body is remembered when eating the bread of the Lord’s supper; and The Holy Spirit, Whose omnipresence acts as The Comforter and Teacher of the saints (that’s not to say that omnipresence is absent from the qualities of The Father or The Son).

Through Him, God incarnate – The Word that has always existed with and as God – all things were created (v. 3a), and nothing that exists in this world could have ever been made without the command of The Word which spoke it into existence (read Genesis 1 – 2:3; John 1:3b). In fact, another character trait of God is life: in Him was life – and life (Jesus described Himself as The Way, The Truth and The Life, read John 14:6) always produces life. Another aspect of God’s nature is as Life-giver. God’s will for His children is life, and the kind of life that knows abundant blessings (Jeremiah 29:11; John 10:10).

The life God offers is not only abundant, promising a blessed future with Him, it has the power to influence others with God’s goodness… acting as light in darkness. It makes God’s way for good living obvious to others. Yet, even then, others reject the light because they have not experienced God’s awakening grace to understand the blessing of His mercies and grace. God’s mercies are new every morning (read Lamentations 3:22-23) and His grace is always sufficient for every occasion (2 Corinthians 12:9).

Yes, God is always just as close as the mention of His name. Call on Him today and trust His perfect wisdom. Stick with Him through hardship and trials, for He will make a way for you.

Have a blessed day…

“…The Word was with God…” John 1:1b

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Logos… the Greek word for “reason”, “plan”, or “word” (as in, let me share a word with you). Roman thought embraced and promulgated the Grecian philosophy of reason, developing schools of thought which echo into our current times. John, an uneducated fisherman, seemed to have had an epiphany of thought when God breathed through him the idea of the living reason: a cosmological proof of God’s existence, as well as the pre-existence of Christ within the God-head. (Of course, we cannot discount the three years of being taught by The Master Teacher, Jesus Christ.)

Thus, John began his gospel (the retelling of Christ’s life) with a captivating thought to the Romans and Greeks: “In the beginning was The Word…” (v. 1a). In other words, it could possibly mean The One Who is of perfect reason has always been. This One of perfect reason has not only always existed, but existed with God, and in fact was (or is) God (v.1c). God speaking through John made it clear that He has always existed and has existed in perfect community with Himself.

A clarifying statement was added: “He was with God in the beginning.” (v.2) The Perfect Reason, Who existed with and as God, has always been a component of the God-head… they have always existed together. This precept is foundational to any thought about God, for one could never assume that God came into being. He has always existed, exists in perfect trinity today, and will always exist into eternity.

Humanity cannot grasp such a thought. It can only be accepted and understood through faith. It is faith that is supplied by God Himself, allowing one to acknowledge Him as God and Savior. God existing as The Word is significant in so many ways, though for today, He is The Word… alive, reasonable, personable, and knowable.

Let’s begin a journey which will peer into the life of Christ, and discover, or rediscover for some, the awesome wonder of Christ’s love and reasonable wisdom.

Have a blessed day…

“…The Lord made him prosperous…” Job 42:10a

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Everything in Job’s life doubled: his wealth, his children, and even experiencing another post-suffering life (v.10b). This part of the story teaches us that suffering passes, though having suffered never passes. The trauma and pain may eventually cease, allowing what is learned through the lessons of suffering to become a treasure kept through the rest of one’s life. It’s been said, ‘misfortune never leaves us where it finds us.’

Fifteen times, Job had demanded why God had allowed the catastrophes which claimed the lives of his children, servants, livestock and property.  Job’s “why’s” dissolved away within the fifty-nine “who’s” (referring to God) found in the latter part of the story. By changing the “y” to an “o”, Job’s pain is vanquished in a sea of grace and discovery of God’s character and oversight. That discovery far surpassed all he had once enjoyed and claimed as his.

This really is the message of Job: though bad things do happen to good people; the one true God is good, providing His sufficient grace for navigating the suffering in this world. The “why’s” of life fade into the woodwork when bathed in the light of God’s grace… The One WHO answers all our why’s with His presence, just as He did for Job. When we enter into His presence, we discover that in His presence is fulness of joy (Psalm 16:11).  Pain needs no explanation by God, though suffering is soothed in the experience of God’s presence, power and grace.

Once Job had been completely restored, he described how all his family and relatives came out of the woodwork: all his brothers, sisters, and neighbors! Where were they when he needed them? Likely stuck in their world-view… they did not want to get ‘bitten’ by God’s vengeance running over into their lives. They were all crippled by the same erroneous world-view as Job’s friends: thinking bad things only happened to bad people.

Just as Job had experienced God’s grace, so he extended the same to his friends through his prayer, and to his family and neighbors through a large feast in his own home. Grace let’s go of grudges. Through his own acceptance of these family members and friends, Job testified to the grace which covered his own offences toward God. Job’s life points to Christ, Who appeared to His frightened disciples, saying: “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” True grace let’s go of others’ past offenses.

This final chapter of Job’s life revealed how he became a man of greater grace: forgiving the severe charges by his own friends; restoring family and community friends; and finally, by including his daughters in the inheritance he would leave behind. In the patriarchal age, daughters received no inheritance unless there were no sons. That tradition was codified when God commanded Moses, “If a man dies and has no son, then you shall cause his inheritance to pass to his daughter.” (Numbers 27:8)

What led Job to break with tradition? Five more sons were delivered into this world. His daughters were likely not counting on an inheritance. However, God’s grace is extended to all, and to Job that meant giving his daughters an equal share in his estate. The issue of equality was settled by God long ago through the life of Job! God’s grace keeps giving… knowing no limits or end. Annie Johnson Flint described it well in her prose:

He giveth more grace as our burdens grow greater, He sendeth more strength as our labors increase, To added afflictions, He addeth His mercy, To multiplied trials, He multiplies peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance, When our strength has failed e’er the day is half-done, When we reach the end of our hoarded resources, our Father’s full giving is only begun.

His love has no limits, His grace has no measure, His power no boundary known unto men; For out of His infinite riches in Jesus, He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again. (from Portraits of Perseverance, by Henry Gariepy; pp. 214-215)

The concluding account of Job’s life may very well have been written by a family member or friend, which simply stated:

“After this, Job lived a hundred and forty-years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. And so he died, old and full of years.” (vv. 16 – 17)

The writer could have just as easily stated Job died, old and full of grace. (Idea provided by David L. McKenna, The Communicator’s Commentary; 1986; p. 328)

Have a blessed day…

“…the Lord accepted Job’s prayer.” Job 42:9b

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There had been a rift between God and Job, however once Job acknowledged the error of his ways and repented, God absolved Job from any hindrance to Heaven’s throne (vv. 2 – 6). There are times when repentance is quite public. By the time Job arrived to the understanding of his need for repentance, his wife, three friends, Elihu and possibly others were present to hear Job admit he had spoken of things about which he had no understanding (v. 3b). Job’s new insight led him to realize they were things too wonderful to grasp previously (v.3c).

Perhaps, every Believer may go through dry periods when scriptural insight or spiritual awareness seems void of any real fresh word from God. Then, in a moment of serendipitous splendor, God speaks and one is bathed in a flood of discovery of things previously too wonderful to see! Is it possible that such moments could occur more frequently if one would simply approach The Father more often? Like a toddler’s waddled, unsteady approach to an adult, with the obvious ‘signs’ to be lifted and placed upon the adult’s lap, the effort provides the child a new perspective.

An even better example could be a child being place upon her/his father’s shoulders to behold the wonders unattainable before… by one only knee-high to a grasshopper (as my grandmother used to say). Are we spiritually knee-high to a grasshopper, seeking the strong arms of The Father to lift us up to new and superior viewpoints? How wonderful to see those things which before were impossible to see because there were just too many things in the way.

At times, one cannot see the forest for the trees standing in the way. One needs to scale the heights of the mountain for the grander perspective… to be lifted higher. It changes one’s orientation… ushering-in new confidence in what one knows through personal experience. Job described it this way: “My ears had heard of You, but now my eyes have seen You.” (v. 5) His viewpoint had been clarified. O, the wonder of seeing The Lord! Open the eyes of my heart Lord, to see You high and lifted up!

That’s why God accepted Job’s prayer… it sprang from a completely new frame of reference in approaching God: as Creator, as Father, as Lord and King, as Redeemer and Friend. Job’s confidence in prayer was founded upon his personal experience with the prayer’s recipient. It was a new-found conversation… more wondrous than Edison’s first words over the telephone. Job’s words would no longer be demanding for an audience with Heaven’s King, and instead would be words beckoning reunion with The Father.

The Lord accepted Job’s prayer and He will accept your prayer, too, as His child, when you approach Him in the confidence of the faith He will supply (read Hebrews 12:2, The Author and perfecter of faith). Call out to Him today. Acknowledge any sin that may be in the way. Repent. And see the door open to the new and wondrous beauty of God’s mercies and grace!

Have a blessed day…

“…I will accept his prayer…” Job 42:8c

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The five words examined today are proof positive that God does give preferential treatment… to those whose lives are completely abandoned unto Him. God smiles upon those who leave the shallowness of the world to be plunged into the depths of trust in His resources and ways.

Complete trust gets out of the boat and walks on water. Faith believes the rain is coming when there is no cloud in the sky. Resolute belief results in one walking upon feet that have never walked before. Only God is able to instill confidence in one to understand how everything in this dimension bows to the supremacy and authority of the spiritual dimension, knowing that just by a simple spoken command, one may be saved from death’s grip.

Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar complied with God’s command to take seven bulls and seven rams and present them before Job as an atoning sacrifice to God for their folly, and God heard Job’s prayer (vv. 8a; 9a). Do you see what I see hidden between those lines? The three friends had to agree with God about their sin. They had to admit their error, just as Job had admitted his sin before God. And Job prayed for the very ones who had despised him, accusing him of hidden sin and pride! Job had to overcome every human urge or ‘knee-jerk’ reaction to judge them. Job died to self (read Galatians 2:20; 5:24; and Luke 9:23) and allowed his prayer to be a conduit of grace and mercy to the Thone of Heaven.

Perhaps Job’s life influenced the life of Joseph, who cared for his brothers who had sold him into slavery. Indeed, both Job and Joseph are types of Christ who, although mistreated, chose grace over judgment… mercy over revenge… love over hate.

Job’s prayer rescued three friendships from the demise of what could have been an easy choice to make… discarding years of personal investment in the trio – camping together, hunting trips, vacations, family outings, worshiping together and maybe even fighting as comrades in arms. Many today are too quick to discard an investment in mutual caring and sharing between two or more souls. Is it possible one may only reap what is sown through life, when finding loneliness and despair at the closing chapter of life?

How should we then live?

Have a blessed day…

“My servant Job will pray…” Job 42:8b

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God instructed Eliphaz to take seven bulls and seven rams and present them to Job as a sacrifice to The Almighty (v.8a). In the instructions, Job was directed to pray for Eliphaz and his friends once the sacrifice was presented (v.8c). Chastising Eliphaz further, God stated He would not deal with Eliphaz according to his folly – for not speaking the truth about God’s character of mercy and grace (v.8c&d).

In the middle of God’s redemptive reprimand, Job was singled-out as the acceptable servant whose prayers would gain the attention of Heaven’s King. Three times in verse eight, God referred to Job as, “…My servant…”. God conferred upon Job before Eliphaz and his friends the same recognition given him in the halls of heaven, when the angels accounted for their activity before God. (see Job 1:8, and 2:3) Job’s significance came from his humble servitude to God. Job’s life-attitude was as God’s servant.

The one defining behavior that best describes servants of God is prayer. True servants of God enter into a holy conversation with Him often and unhindered. They are fully welcomed into God’s presence because God is fully welcomed into their lives. The conversations between Heaven’s benevolent Master and earth’s heavenly commissioned servants are of such importance for breaking down strong-holds, employing legions of angels, and standing in the gap for those laden by sickness or other intercessory needs.

There are good servants and bad servants, just as there are good cops and bad cops, good people and bad people. The best servants are those who know their defined role and perform their duties to the best of their ability… often going beyond what is expected. It is the same attitude Christ exhibited when He left Heaven’s glory and came to earth. The apostle Paul explained it this way:

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Therefore, God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in Heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:6 – 11)

God always rewards a servant heart… the glad attitude of doing one’s best for The Master… even if it means all one may get is a rusty nail. We see, then, that Job was a type of Christ, seen in his humble attitude and whole-hearted service to God. What about us? How are we mirroring the heart of Christ before a watching world? How are we to build bridges of hope to those blind to God’s ever-reaching love?

You’re the only Jesus some may ever see.

Have a blessed day…

“…I am angry with you…” Job 42:7b

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Once Job had openly repented before God and those witnessing the occasion, God gave Job the inside story – telling him the entire story (v.7a). Then God turned to Eliphaz the Temanite and expressed great displeasure toward his theology…. his view and understanding of God. God confronted Eliphaz’s faulty theology saying, “…you have not spoken of me what is right…” (v.7c).

God wants us to know Him rightly. He has created a world that mirrors His power, wisdom and genius. Paul described it this way:

“The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20)

There are those who claim to have no belief in God or disbelief in God. They like to sit on the fence of indecision. They call themselves agnostics, stating that only when there is sufficient evidence of a Creator could they actually change their worldview. Well, to them I say, God has made it clearly visible to them… it’s all around you. The air cycle; the water cycle; the laws of nature; the periodic table; DNA; molecular physics… they all reflect the eternal power and divine nature of God. (That was not intended to be an exhaustive list.)

Eliphaz and his friends had offended God by embracing the world’s view of God and not the proven, legitimate understanding of God and His nature… His grace. When God is cast in a bad light, His wrath is exposed from Heaven against all godlessness (those who reject God completely) and wickedness (those who reject God or His ways lose the compass for good living which will impact the world around them for good… thus leading to all sorts of wickedness). Even if they live basically good lives in the eyes of the world, their lives were not used to point others to Him, thus their wickedness was suppressing the truth of God’s existence.

Like it or not, we will all stand before God in judgment. Some will sadly be sent away from God’s presence, while others will be defended by Heaven’s King and Defender of The Truth, for He is The Way, The Truth and The Life (read John 14:1-14, a wonderful self-description by Jesus). Who will Jesus defend? Those who have accepted Him as Lord and Savior, and have embraced God’s way of truth and right… those who have acknowledged God’s existence.

Would you have God angry with you? One of the proclaimers stirring the first great awakening in this country was Jonathan Edwards. He preached a sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” on July 8, 1741. Though he had preached the same sermon earlier at his own church in Northampton, Massachusetts, with no known results, it was upon his second presentation of the sermon that people interrupted, crying out for how to escape God’s wrath and judgment. In the sermon, Edwards pointed out the precarious position of foolish souls who deny God’s mercy and grace… that at any moment God could snatch them from this earth and send them to their judgment. The only reason unrepentant sinners are spared from such is God’s providence and timing. Edwards stated, “There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.”

Are you standing on the fence separating finite existence and infinite joy. God has made his love for you clear, simply by giving you the gift of today: The Present… you live in it! If God can be so longsuffering toward you, certainly He deserves your heart fully devoted to Him and His Way. I hope you will not encounter God confronting you with the words:

I am angry with you.

Have a blessed day…

“…I despise myself and repent…” Job 42:6

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Repentance is the prelude to any real spiritual renewal. Job’s words reflect an attitude required for repentance to occur: despising one’s sin… and despising it so much as to never return to it again – a very difficult thing to do. You see, we are like dogs that return to lick up their own vomit (Not a very pretty picture is it? See Proverbs 26:11). We become captured by recurring patterns of illicit behavior after first becoming ensnared by temptation. To break free from sin requires a complete personal contempt for the action, which can happen through the help and guidance of The Holy Spirit convicting the heart toward a personal resolve of departure from the past.

At the anointing of the first Hebrew temple in Jerusalem, God provided a roadmap to national restoration if the nation ever left its foundational guidance of God’s righteous precepts. Just prior to offering the directions for the reestablishment of national peace and health, God told Solomon He had heard his prayers (2 Chronicles 7:12)! God then instructed Solomon the following:

“If my people, who are called by name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and I will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

The first obvious dynamic toward national healing is for God’s people to humble themselves in prayer, seeking God’s face. God did not require unbelievers to do so, for He would not attend to their prayers… like a child approaching the wrong adult for parental favor. Only those bearing His likeness and name capture the ear of The Almighty.

The second pre-requisite to national healing is to seek God’s face… not God’s handouts. It is not a ‘gimme-prayer’, seeking God for favor to make life easier, or for a quick fix, an easy solution… only to return to the same living as before. Seeking God’s face implies intimacy with God – closeness that resembles a child seeking her/his father’s hand-up and cuddle in his arms… next to his face. I still well remember the scruff of my father’s face, when as a child I would beg for him to pick me up and hold me close to his face. It’s that kind of intimacy… only in the spiritual dimension.

If a nation is to experience restoration, God requires a third action: that His people turn from wickedness. Without giving non-believers a pass on wicked living, God expected the leadership for such to come from His people. God was completely transparent with Solomon, knowing the nature of man to sin. God’s nature for reclaiming what is rightfully His and restoring those who had fractured relationship with Him is clearly evident in the above passage.

When those three intentional steps are taken by God’s people, then and only then God has promised first to listen. National prayers for God to remove the curse of sickness without turning from sin would be nothing more than the prophets of Baal unsuccessfully bidding their false god to miraculously burn their sacrifice (read 1 Kings 18). It won’t matter how loud the prayers may become, there would be no effective result. If we want God’s attention, if we wish to capture the ear of creations King, we must abandon the worship of anything that is taking God’s rightful place, and abhor any practices displeasing to God easily identified in scripture (see the 10 commandments for starters, found in Exodus 20).

When God’s guidance for national restoration is followed, God promises a second action: forgiveness of sin. It is the only thing God allows to be forgotten (read Isaiah 43:25; Hebrews 8:12; 10:16-17). God not only forgives sins, He removes them as far as the east from the west… that is eternally far from His conscience (read Psalm 103:10-12). Paul declared there would be great joy for those whose sin record has been cleared by The Lord (read Romans 4:8). Though the sinner may benefit from His forgiveness, God forgives for His own sake (Isaiah 43:25). It is a mystery which Believers will understand in Heaven’s joy.

God promises a third benefit to those who follow His plan for national restoration: the land will be healed. In other words, the plague will be lifted… the curse removed. The country will be restored to peacefully pursue the ideals of freedom as one nation under God’s rule.

Will you join me in humbling ourselves before God, seeking His face and echoing Job’s words:

I despise myself and repent.

What if your insistence to continue in your sin is the one thing keeping our country from experiencing healing… would you be moved to action then? When Job despised himself, he despised his actions – of carelessly and recklessly claiming complete innocence while demanding an audience with God. Once God forgives one’s sin, then one is restored in full relationship with The Father, Who loves with an eternal love. Then one can love oneself again and exercise the right love for her/his neighbor (read Matthew 22:39; Mark 12:31).

Have a blessed day…

 

“…my eyes have seen You.” Job 42:5b

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Job recalled how God had said, “Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you and you shall answer Me”. (v.4; 38:3; 40:7) God’s patience had reached His mark, and the teachable moment found a repentant heart. The moment one humbles him/herself before The Lord, is the moment God reciprocates and draws close to their heart with forgiveness and restoration (read James 4:8). God is gentle and His mercies are new every morning (see Lamentations 3:22-24).

There was an admission of what Job knew about God: he had heard of God’s might, power and goodness… probably through oral tradition common in his time (v.5a). That oral tradition was nothing that was extrapolated or exaggerated, as it was considered sacred. For one to dare consider changing the oral tradition would be seen as heresy. Think of an old family recipe that has been handed down through generations. Each family member knows the recipe is true and always achieves the tasty results everyone anticipates. If one family member decided to leave out one of the ingredients, it would be considered by the clan as a departure from family tradition and value… it is a part of their family’s DNA. The same is true in oral tradition… the sacred truths of God became a part of their spiritual DNA.

Though Job was a devout, righteous man (see 1:1), he experienced God in a different way. His eyes had been opened to a new perspective of God: His sustaining power and restoring grace. He declared that though his ears had heard about God, his eyes had now seen The Almighty (v.5). We do not know what Job saw or if he was referring to seeing things differently. We do know that Job was now very much aware that he had been approaching God for his own purposes, not God’s.

In 2007, Pastor Rick Warren published a best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life. The first sentence of the book establishes the path for the reader’s next forty days: “It’s not about you.” Job discovered that this life was not about himself. Having lost his livelihood, children, property and servants, one can only try to understand the devastation he experienced. Nevertheless, even Job learned that no man is an island unto himself… we are not our own. We are ‘owned’ by our Creator, and only He has the privilege and right to use us for His eternal purposes.

Pray with me for spiritual awakening in our day, that people’s eyes would be opened to God’s mercy and grace… that thousands upon thousands would also join the chorus of Job’s words:

MY EYES HAVE SEEN YOU

Pray that God would give you new eyes to see others through the lens of love, and to see the future through the lens of eternal hope and joy.

Have a blessed day…

“…things I did not understand…” Job 42:3b

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God confronted Job with a question: “Who is this that obscures my counsel without knowledge?” (See 38:2; 42:3a) The question in our time would read, “Who discounts my words adding to their own ignorance?” In other words, those who ignore guidance from the sacred texts are doomed to repeat the catastrophes of history. It’s happening in our own day… in our time.

Job had been too quick to speak of things which he had no understanding (v.3b). Job emphasized his repentant confession, stating: “…things too wonderful for me to know.” (v.3c) Perhaps, Job had never considered the interconnectedness of creation. God’s signature is upon every tree limb, every leaf, every gnat, every living thing, in the clouds, stars, and even in the ocean’s deepest reaches. Nevertheless, the first step of gaining new understanding is admitting what one does not know… and new understanding of life leads to greater trust in God.

According to his son, Poet Joyce Kilmer wrote in his journal a poem entitled, Trees, on February 2, 1913. It has since become an intimate word picture of earth’s reliance upon her Creator:

I think that I shall never see a poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day, and lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear a nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain; who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me, but only God can make a tree.

Indeed, how wonderful is the diversity, the depth and height of God’s genius in creation! All of it is simply too wonderful for any of us to fully know. God, however, is The Revealer of hidden things, and allows mankind to make new discoveries applicable to our lives. Blessed be the name of The Lord!

Have a blessed day…

 

“…You can do all things…” Job 42:2a

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Job’s spiritual eyes had been blinded by trauma. The time of sorrow was now past, for Job understood what God had been saying to him: God is in charge and no one is able to take His place. Job professed that his knowledge base had expanded – he realized God could do all things.

By finally bowing his knee to God’s supremacy, Job demonstrated his trust in God’s heart and wisdom confessing, “…no plan of Yours can be thwarted.” (v.2b) This confession was made before God revealed the entire story-line to Job (see v.7). What Elihu had tried to persuade Job to do through philosophical argument, God accomplished through revelation of His creation and its sustenance by His divine hand.

When the believing heart lives life from the perspective of Job’s confession, nothing in life is too difficult to endure. Trusting God is a daily exercise of confidence in the wisdom and love God abundantly supplies to His own. The more trust is exercised, the stronger the muscle of faith becomes, for trust is the benchpress of faith’s development.

O God, You can do all things, and we trust You to work through the turbulence of our day to offer Your salvation to man. Blow away the fog of faithlessness; sweep away the chaff of useless fretting; and breathe across our land, stirring the waves of revival and renewal. Do it again, Lord… send a great awakening across our land.

In the name above every name, we pray… amen.

NOTE: Go to www.thereturn.org to be a part of the prayer network seeking another great awakening in our day. Watch this video to learn more:

https://www.google.com/url?a=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwj1sZ3QzdLqAhXsknIEHVGFCtYQwqsBMAB6BAgKEAM&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3Dcn9wlzsFKzc&usg=AOvVaw08G8gPp9v6xuGUKM-6atyw