February 28, 2011

Job 29
I open the refrigerator door looking for a snack. Almost instantly I have two pairs of dark brown eyes are fixed upon my every move. My dogs know that if I am not seated at the table and that if I have food in my hand, then they might get something tasty to eat. I have their undivided attention as long as I have some food in my hand. They are in ecstasy as I give them the tasty morsels that I have retrieved from the fridge!
There is a season and a time for everything in experiencing the glory of God. There are times when it seems the good pleasure of God invades everything that we do. Job remembers those times in this chapter. He longs for them again. He remembers the joy of being with his family. He remembers the time when his livestock were abundant. Or we might say today, when the bank account was overflowing and it seemed that we could not be overdrawn. There were times when he was among the movers and shakers of this world. He called the shots. He remembered times when God gave him the ability to do good to those who needed help. He drank in the feeling of self-satisfaction because he was valuable to other people. He remembered a time when his advice was sought out because he was ‘successful’. Surely, a ‘successful’ person could give wise counsel. What a feeling that gives to know that you possess the wisdom that helps other people, if they do it. It must have been awfully satisfying to Job.
But what happens when we begin to believe that somehow we are the ones responsible for the good things that are happening around us? It diminishes the glory of God around us for we begin to take the credit. It is indeed a wondrous season. It is a season full of joy, but it is the season when we are in the most danger for God will move us from that season in order to teach us the source of those good things. He does so to teach us to seek Him and not the things in His hand. His glory is found beyond the good things in His hand. When He disposes of the things in His hand, will we remain fixed upon His glory? That is what is happening to Job. As he remembers the past, he longs for those things that he also experienced that came as he experienced the good things from God’s hand. Lord, thank you for the good things that I find in Your hand, but help me to look beyond them in order to gaze into the glory of Your eyes. May your glory be that by which I gain my ecstasy! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john