I keep thinking about how Job used to offer sacrifices for his children in case they sinned. Now, Job has more freedom and beauty pouring out of him. Ellen F. Davis in The Sufferer's Wisdom writes: "Job has learned to govern his world as God does. The cautious patriarch of the prologue who offered 'preemptive sacrifices' for his children has become a parent after God's own heart. The great question that God's speech out of the whirlwind poses for Job and every other person of integrity is this: Can you love what you do not control?"
Job's response: "I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know." Job 42:3. God showed Job the beauty and order of this world. Oh! to have eyes to see in our pain. Oh! to have hearts that are willing to go on again like Job was. Job moved in love to his world. Ten more children in an unknown world with a God that may take them again. Maybe an act of faith unparalleled. What courage. Will I move in love where God has placed me this day? Trusting and not letting go of His Invisible Hand. Yes, move to love this world of mine, these children of mine? For I am not the center of the universe. Will I embrace the pain, relinquish control, and repent?
COME BOLDLY: Timeless Prayers
"God has invited me to this calling. "I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you." Job 42:5. Father, wherever we sit as we read this Word, may we truly see You in the midst of our broken lives. May we recant and repent of the control we maneuver on our world, over our husbands, over our children, over our friends. My hand is over my mouth.
PHOTO: Quarries Lake in Austin, Texas. It's a spot I come to often to pray and wrestle with the God of the Universe Who has allowed things into my life. I am so moved by this Epilogue of a man who still has boils and buried children and immense loss. Oh, to see life as Job sees, as God sees. Our Redeemer lives---may we fully live.
"God has invited me to this calling. "I had heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you." Job 42:5. Father, wherever we sit as we read this Word, may we truly see You in the midst of our broken lives. May we recant and repent of the control we maneuver on our world, over our husbands, over our children, over our friends. My hand is over my mouth.
PHOTO: Quarries Lake in Austin, Texas. It's a spot I come to often to pray and wrestle with the God of the Universe Who has allowed things into my life. I am so moved by this Epilogue of a man who still has boils and buried children and immense loss. Oh, to see life as Job sees, as God sees. Our Redeemer lives---may we fully live.
I'm praying for good health for you, dear Bev. I love how Job took responsibility for his children and offered sacrifices for them. We can offer up prayers as sweet incense for our children and spouses. I am so convicted to change my attitude to gratitude and praise as I read Job. God is goodness and grace. He strengthens through adversity. He is changing me by making me aware of priorities in my life by showing me the difference of need versus wants. I have such a long way to go on this journey to righteousness.
ReplyDeleteAmen, Janet! Gratitude... :)
DeleteJan, I noticed for the first time that Job was cautious about his children in offering sacrifices for their sins but the next set of ten children, he had a lot more freedom to love and appreciate their beauty and not be as rigid. I read this in a commentary that said it was interesting the names that he named his children were even more free: Cinnamon, and I can't remember the other two right now, something like Rose. Job found freedom that even changed his parenting. May our parenting move to love like this---to love what we cannot control.
DeleteI am not in control and It doesn't matter, I think that is the whole point of Job's life, and all of our lives. I have been holding on to family, job security, a comfortable lifestyle, and when they are taken or shaken, I am learning to trust in the middle of the whirlwind. God really does have the best plan for my life.
ReplyDeleteThat's it! You are precious!
Delete"And my servant Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with you according to your folly. For you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.” ~Job 42:8 I am once again reminded to not only talk "of" what God does in my life, but to pray to Him consistently.
ReplyDeleteOops, I wasn't done before it published! Ha! I just wanted to add another verse that spoke loud and clearly to me... “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted." It's so hard to remember that He really does have a purpose for some of the things that are too hard to understand. Bev, you have a friend here in Michigan praying for you now. xo
DeleteThanks Ang. I really struggled yesterday with the fainting episodes. It was rather scary---and not new to me. Love how this "sufferer" now becomes a "mediator" for his friends. You're the same, sweet girl. Always thinking about others.
DeleteJob confessed and prayed for his friends. God accepted his prayers and Job was restored. David confessed and was restored. When we truly repent, when we are truly contrite, God restores. May we be completely whole in Christ Jesus because we are restored by God.
ReplyDeleteGod, Please convict us of our sins so that we may stay close to You, living in wholeness. In Jesus' Name.
Praying for you Bev.
Annette H
You make it sound so simple, Annette... Just as it is! :) Thanks! Have a great day!
DeleteI noticed this time too that Job prayed for his friends. And Job's friends did not pray for Job. But they sure had a lot to say about Job and his situation.
ReplyDeleteI love that God talks about His first creation, the behemoth. Wondering if that was the dinosaur's real name.
God is in the details of our lives. He is in control. Thanking Him this morning for Who He is and the magnitude of what that means for us.
Now Job is a mediator whereas when he was bent on control of his situation, that love didn't flow out. Same in my own life. And a mediator to his children too. I'm so taken with how he is free to parent in the midst of terror. You know how victims of immense horror face difficulties. A friend of our lost his wife and 3 children in an auto accident. It was so hard for him to have another child but he did. And Job moved in love to his wife who has been so absent in this book---and they had 10 more. 20 children! I'm dying of the stomach flu. 20 deliveries. Job is a changed man when he recanted and relented and relinquished that control. I am so moved by this reading of Job this time.
DeletePraying for your health, Bev!
ReplyDeleteI'm at home and doing fine. Able to keep down liquids. The fainting is what is so scary to me.
DeleteOne commentary talked about Job's parenting---I had never thought about that before. They called him a "cautious patriarch" in the beginning but no more with the next set of 10 children. My four children are very strong leaders and trying to relate to them as adults is a challenge for me to draw out of them yet allow them to be their own. Job's story is telling for me. Can I love what I cannot control? Truth is---I couldn't control them as preschoolers either. I may have thought I was in control but really. We are here to love deeply. From Job, I see that I'm not as free to love as I thought I was.
ReplyDeleteSo, thankful to hear that you are home and being able to keep down liquids. Please get the needed rest that you need to get. You push yourself so much. Rest....rest....As to adult children. My son was the hard one when he was little. Still hard but we have a much better relationship than ever before. It was hard to know for over ten years that he was going to a church that I did not completely like their doctrine. Still not sure why he went there...never joined. He moved his letter back to our church two years ago....he was baptized there as a child. My daughter and I have had a much better relationship for the most part about church etc. I have had to bite my tongue when they joined a church that was NOT what they have said they believed. God has taken them out of that church by moving them out of state and for that I am grateful. Just sit back and listen and engage them in what He has shown you or taught you....they will open up. You can love what you can't control....I am living proof of that...I love my son and have not been able to "control" him since he was about six months...ha, ha. It is all an illusion of control anyway. I have loved him through it ALL and it has been quite an ALL and now learning to love my daughter in the same way. Have never seen them with rose colored glasses...see them warts and all and they are still very dear to my heart. In our finite ways we can not do anything like we want to. You do love deeply Bev....that is so evident....He is so refining you and you are a thing of beauty to behold.
Deletethank you dear friend . . .
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