Bible Study Blog for Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Job 41-42; Acts 16:22-40
“I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes…”
For 4 Chapters now God has been taking Job over the coals – A 4-chapter seminar on the subject, “I’m GOD, and you’re NOT.”
Job’s response was the right one. When God takes you to the woodshed, it’s not the time to complain about how you’ve been treated. Plain and simple: He’s GOD, and we’re NOT.
But Job’s response to God was more than an admission of wrong. It was a declaration of God’s right to lead our lives, and it was also the beginning of amazing healing and restoration for Job. Once Job let go of his understandable frustration and anger over undeserved suffering, God vindicated him – first to his misguided friends – and then to everyone else. And Job began a season of incredible prosperity and blessing.
I’m impressed with the idea that when it’s MY turn to suffer, God isn’t looking for me to vindicate myself. He isn’t looking for me to shoulder the weight of injustice. All He’s looking for from me – is to exalt Him as the rightful Leader of my life – no matter what. Then – I can trust Him to do the vindicating and the restoring. What a weight off!
Have a GREAT Tuesday!
Tags: Acts, Bayside Church Woodland, Bayside Woodland, Bible Study, Job
It’s easy for me to “despise myself” when I look at the litany of failures to be who God wants me to be. True, He is God and I’m not.
All too often the despicable things inside me hide there from God when He is demanding that I get rid of them after I show them to Him willingly. If I don’t follow Job’s lead and repent I’ll get the separation from God that I’m trying to maintain on one hand while trying to hang on to relationship with Him with the other hand. Dumb! Stupid!
Not only will I tear myself apart because of the distance between obedience and disobedience but I’ll not have any peace until I repent and truly despise myself. He can’t restore me until I submit to Him and the call of the Holy Spirit in my life. Since I can’t do that under my own power I need the Holy Spirit moving in my life every day to keep me obedient and ready to serve God. I can’t even trust Him unless He puts the Holy Spirit in charge of my life. There’s no peace, either, unless you have been given the faith that sees that everything will be OK when it’s over–and if it’s not OK, then it’s not over.