Quote for the Day
“You gave me life and…watched over my spirit.”
Today's Prayer
This week ask God to allow you to see His special will in your life. Ask God to allow those traveling to be focused on God’s will and not their own situation. Ask God to allow the pain and hurt of distance in personal relationships to be carried by the closeness of His Holy Spirit.
Job chapter 10
Job chapter 10 (NIV)Job 101 “I loathe my very life;therefore I will give free rein to my complaintand speak out in the bitterness of my soul.2 I will say to God: Do not condemn me,but tell me what charges you have against me.3 Does it please you to oppress me,to spurn the work of your hands,while you smile on the schemes of the wicked?4 Do you have eyes of flesh?Do you see as a mortal sees?5 Are your days like those of a mortalor your years like those of a man,6 that you must search out my faultsand probe after my sin-7 though you know that I am not guiltyand that no one can rescue me from your hand?8 “Your hands shaped me and made me.Will you now turn and destroy me?9 Remember that you molded me like clay.Will you now turn me to dust again?10 Did you not pour me out like milkand curdle me like cheese,11 clothe me with skin and fleshand knit me together with bones and sinews?12 You gave me life and showed me kindness,and in your providence watched over my spirit.13 “But this is what you concealed in your heart,and I know that this was in your mind:14 If I sinned, you would be watching meand would not let my offense go unpunished.15 If I am guilty-woe to me!Even if I am innocent, I cannot lift my head,for I am full of shameand drowned in my affliction.16 If I hold my head high, you stalk me like a lionand again display your awesome power against me.17 You bring new witnesses against meand increase your anger toward me;your forces come against me wave upon wave.18 “Why then did you bring me out of the womb?I wish I had died before any eye saw me.19 If only I had never come into being,or had been carried straight from the womb to the grave!20 Are not my few days almost over?Turn away from me so I can have a moment’s joy21 before I go to the place of no return,to the land of gloom and deep shadow,22 to the land of deepest night,of deep shadow and disorder,where even the light is like darkness.”
Message
Job continues his plea to God. Again it is the physical as well as the spiritual pain that forces Job to cry out. He is understands God and God’s will, but at the same time knows something is missing. Why? He has had closeness with God that any person would envy. He was close enough to be called upright and blameless, and yet now he is without his family and without his possessions; his health has failed him, and he is literally living in the gutter. Yet his questions before God are made with the understanding that God has all the answers and that God is in control. His real question in chapter 10 is to have God understand him as a man would. Again we see the continued search for someone to arbitrate between God and man.This chapter also shows the real heart of Job. He is truly a man of integrity and humility. While he asks very direct questions of God (i.e., “Hey, you made me. Are you now going to let me suffer?” See verses 8-12), he also is very clear that even if he is innocent, he could not lift his head to God. Verse 12 is the key to seeing Job. Remember as you read it that this is a man with no money, living in physical pain, having just lost his entire family, and his comment to God along with his questions is verse 12, “You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.” Yes, Job was hurting. Yes, Job wanted answers. Yes, Job was frustrated. But YES, Job knew that God is, was, and will be in full control!How about you? Who is in charge of you and your attitude today? Can you focus your world in the light of the Almighty? That is what He desires from you!