Job's Repentance
My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes. Job 42:5-6 NIV
After a barrage of questioning by God, Job finally got it. He finally saw God. Did Job physically see God? No. But his eyes were opened in faith to who God really was in all of His power and majesty. Being forced to consider all of God's questions about creation and control of creation surely shed light on Job's view of himself in relation to God. In that, he finally "saw" God. He finally showed God some true humility, unlike his friends whom God chastised in the last chapter of the book of Job.
A verse in Psalms keeps running through my mind of late that coincides with how Job was probably feeling when he uttered his words of repentance to God.
When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? (Psalm 8:3-4 NIV)
Who am I that God would care about every hair on my head? Who am I that God would need me to do anything for Him? What can we give to God that He doesn't already have?
Believe it or not, there is one thing we can give to God that He might not already have. We can give to Him our love and our lives in complete surrender to Him. That's what we can give to God. The only thing He doesn't have, not because He can't have it but because He chose to give it to us, is our free will. God gave us the power of choice to follow Him or not.
God is mindful of us, not because we are great people and have so much to offer Him, but because He loves us, just as He loved the people of Israel.
The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. (Deut 7:7-8 NIV)
God chose the people of Israel. God chose you and God chose me. Because He loved us all. We've just celebrated the pinnacle of His love with the Easter holiday. With that fresh in our memories, how are we going to love Him back?
To think about:
1) How often do I praise God and meditate on His greatness?
2) With how much of my heart am I really serving Him?
3) How am I going to serve my Savior today?