Today’s Devotional Theme Unconditional Trust
Daily ScriptureJob 13:15
“Though he slay me, I will hope in him; yet I will argue my ways to his face.”
Encouragement
I recall friends from years ago whose hope and trust in God was evidently based on God’s treating them ok – that is, “ok” in their definition, not God’s. But when some calamity befell them (and let’s face it, calamities befall us Christians as well as non-Christians), they walked away. Almost like stepping from His kingdom scene into a 3-dimensional hologram of a depraved world teeming with demons and out of bounds to God. In my nearly 40 years of coming to know God, I’ve been tempted to step back into the quagmire a few times. Thankfully, God’s Spirit has restrained me every time. I think of an old song with a line, “Where you going to run to, sinner-man?” Although it took him a while – like it does most of us – David realized that wherever he went, God would still be there, whether or not he chose to embrace Him: Psalm 139:8, “If I ascend to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in hell, you are there!”
Apply God’s Word
In today’s scripture, Job tells God and his “helpful” friends that his trust in God is unconditional. His disasters stretch my fertile imagination almost beyond anything I can think of. Yet Job declares that, no matter what has or will happen to him, he will hope and put his trust in God. I’m seeing a friend and his family walk through a fiery trial right now. But I get no inkling that he is thinking about turning his back on God. That’s a difference between having our feet tightly rooted in God’s soil and having one foot planted on kingdom ground and the other in the world. That “best of both worlds” – a double-best that many believers try to live but doesn’t really exist – is potentially a ticket back into this sin-besmirched world. After nearly 4 decades, I still have vivid memories of the mess I’d made of my life before I came to Jesus Christ. I’m unshakably convinced that if I stepped back into that hologram I mentioned above, my life would quickly become the unlivable mess it used to be – and worse.
Come into His Presence
Our Father in Heaven, I thank You for keeping us like a tree that survives droughts, fires, and lightning strikes and grows and thrives even when conditions are ill-suited for survival, let alone growth. In Jesus’ name, amen.
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