|
|
by Selwyn Hughes
Read: Job 13:1-15
Job 13:1-15 (KJV)
Lo, mine eye hath seen all this, mine ear hath heard and understood it.
What ye know, the same do I know also: I am not inferior unto you.Surely I would speak to the Almighty, and I desire to reason with God.
But ye are forgers of lies, ye are all physicians of no value.O that ye would altogether hold your peace! and it should be your wisdom.
Hear now my reasoning, and hearken to the pleadings of my lips.Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?
Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?Is it good that he should search you out? or as one man mocketh another, do ye so mock him?
He will surely reprove you, if ye do secretly accept persons.Shall not his excellency make you afraid? and his dread fall upon you?
Your remembrances are like unto ashes, your bodies to bodies of clay.Hold your peace, let me alone, that I may speak, and let come on me what will.
Wherefore do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in mine hand?Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.
"Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him ..." (v. 15)
A friend of mine who is an instructor in the field of Christian counseling says that one of the things he likes to do with his students is to mess up their theology. He does so by asking them difficult questions about the realities of the universe in order to see how they attempt to square these issues with their view of God.
"God always answers the prayer of faith," said one of his students.
"Then why," he asked the student, "did I pray for an hour for my father who was desperately sick to have a good night and then hear that he had the worst night since he had been in the hospital?"
"You didn't pray in faith," replied the student.
That's the kind of glib answer many people would give to that question. Such people can't sit quietly in the presence of mystery and say: "I don't understand why this is so but nevertheless I still believe God is good." They must have some kind of answer that they can hold on to because when they have no answers they have no faith.
Faith is Job saying: "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him." Anyone can believe when there are explanations and answers. The person who goes on to know God in a deep and intimate way is the one who can affirm that God is good even though there may be a thousand appearances to the contrary.
Pray for me and I will pray for you that together we might come to the place of trusting God even when we cannot trace Him.
Prayer:
O God, bring us closer day by day to that place of deep confidence and absolute trust. May we know You so deeply that nothing we see around us will shake or shatter our belief in Your unchanging goodness. In our Lord's Name we pray. Amen.
For Further Study:
Dan. 3:13--30; Hab. 3:16--18; Ps. 46:2
1. How did the Hebrew youths demonstrate faith in God?
2. What does Habakkuk declare?
Source: Every Day Light
See Also:
God's Love
We are living in a time where the love of many are going cold. Due to lack of love many problems are happening in family, in society and even in churches. It may be easy to love our own family or our own church members. But to love others it may be difficult.The Old Rugged Cross - The Proof of God's Love by Selwyn Hughes
I often wonder to myself what was happening that was good when my wife was dying with cancer. I couldn't see anything, but because I know God is good I accept that something good was being worked out. A good God was in charge, and I am prepared to wait for the clarification of that until I get home.
Suffering | General Sermons | Lectionary Sermons | Spiritual/Moral Articles | Malankara World Journal | Malankara World Library
-------
Malankara World
A service of St. Basil's Syriac Orthodox
Church, Ohio
Copyright © 2009-2020 - ICBS Group. All Rights Reserved.
Disclaimer
Website designed, built, and hosted by
International Cyber Business Services, Inc., Hudson, Ohio
