Friday, June 11, 2010
June 12 ... Job 38 - 39 "Besetting Sins"
Job 38:1 - God answered Job from the eye of a violent storm. God says to Job: "Stand tall." Job thought he was finished in Job 31---no more explaining his cause. No, God is looking for all of us to stand tall before Him, the One Who created it all. He wants us to look for Him, listen to Him, and long for Him to change what is going on inside the fray of our hearts. "Where were you Job when I created the earth?" And God takes Job on a stunning metaphoric tour of our planet. Job started this journey back in chapter one offering sacrifices for his children and believing then that you don't get angry with God. In chapter three we find Job depressed experiencing loss with no real friends. Then we heard from a very angry Job wrestling and communicating his anger toward God all the way to Job's final words in Job 31. But, No...God doesn't want Job to sit and shut up. "Stand tall!" We think we are in charge. But Who is really in charge of it all? In charge of everything from creation to suffering to. Job can't change his "besetting" sin of demandingness---only God can do that and He wants to. I had a great conversation with a friend today about besetting sins. If our friends and family don't know their own besetting sins like Job's friends had no clue, then they hold arrogance in their hearts. They "miss" you cause all their good advice comes from wrong places in their hearts. Remember where Job started in all of this---I haven't sinned. But scales are falling from his eyes and Job is listening to God. My besetting sin involves wanting to be rescued from deep wounds. Please come through for me. Needing someone to attach to. Overwhelmed. So I attached to strong men, strong ideas, strong ministry to be special. I wanted to count. To be somebody. To be safe. But that's all my old nature. My new nature is letting go of being rescued and living without answers---suffering without explanation. The new Bev is not looking to insight to save me. No more waiting to be discovered. My friend said to me today: "When we grow up inside, we give up childish ways of handling suffering." So what besetting sins have plagued your life? What do you want more than the Love of your Christ?
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"What besetting sins control my life?" That question really gets to the heart of the matter, Bev. I would have to say mine would be bitterness. I have been deeply hurt and did not realize how the bitterness was pouring out until a friend brought it to my attention. I am releasing that to the Father and grabbing onto forgivness, with expectation that He will make a way through the pain and will use all things for His glory. He who created all things, created me, He knows my thoughts, my heart, my sins.
ReplyDeleteWhat food for thought to ponder on and meditate on.."what besetting sins control my life" and the lives of my family members???I heard bitterness in my adult daughter's voice last night and it broke my heart..she loves Him so and has a heart to serve Him and do as He leads her...yet I hear bitterness toward the organized church...and I don't believe that she has a clue..how I grieved and then I prayed for her. How I don't want any bitterness, nor pride or any number of things to control my life..only Him. Something happened this week and I won't go into detail, but He clearly showed me that he was NOT through with me here on earth and He still had a use and purpose for my life..even in my early sixties. Still trying to absorb that thought. Blessings on your week end dear Bev...how your words are used by Him in my life...love you in Him...
ReplyDeleteHow could anyone not believe in God? When I read these chapters, I'm always so blown away by the Great Mysteries of His vastness and perfect order. Such beautiful, poetic words today. Painting with words the awesomeness of our Lord.
ReplyDeleteBesetting sins...those same old "issues" that continually pop their ugly heads up in our lives as we are being transformed. My old sin nature wants to claim control and somewhere inside believes if I just say it, or warn against it, it won't happen. And then, I hear the disappointed, "Mom, I know..." or "Do you HAVE to tell me that again?" My daughter told me the other day, "You use anxiety as an excuse to voice your worries and you don't try to change." Something like that, anyway...I still struggle with putting details of my life in His most capable Hands.
It comes down to faith in Him. I want to be a Hebrews Hall of Faith Christian, and yet the first steps of turning my details over to Him aren't happening often enough. I long for that new creation He desires me to be. The white flag of surrender waves again. And He reassures me He's just waiting for me to get to the end of me.
I've thought and read about besetting sins and this is mine:
ReplyDelete9-12 "Will the wild buffalo condescend to serve you, volunteer to spend the night in your barn? Can you imagine hitching your plow to a buffalo and getting him to till your fields? He's hugely strong, yes, but could you trust him, would you dare turn the job over to him? You wouldn't for a minute depend on him, would you, to do what you said when you said it?"
I'm the wild buffalo for God. I want to push instead of being led.
I need to turn my zeal for the Lord into this:
19-25 "Are you the one who gave the horse his prowess and adorned him with a shimmering mane?
Did you create him to prance proudly and strike terror with his royal snorts?
He paws the ground fiercely, eager and spirited, then charges into the fray.
He laughs at danger, fearless, doesn't shy away from the sword.
The banging and clanging of quiver and lance don't faze him.
He quivers with excitement, and at the trumpet blast races off at a gallop.
At the sound of the trumpet he neighs mightily, smelling the excitement of battle from a long way off, catching the rolling thunder of the war cries.
God is teaching me right now to wait on the sound of His trumpet.
These are the most beautiful words in God's Holy Bible. As grand as they are to read, just imagine what it must have been like to hear them. God's Voice is like the sound of many waters, many rushing waters. I've heard it one time and it is unlike anything you have ever heard in your whole life experience. You jerk your head, hearing this VOICE like no other. And He changes your life when He speaks.
I want to just bow down and worship Him here.
The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before Him.