Written by Chuck Swindoll, these encouraging devotional thoughts are published seven days per week.
If you take the time to analyze those words, you'll see that Job has three responses. The first is a response of humility. The second is a response of relief. And the third is a response of surrender. That's all God wanted to hear.
How big is your God? Big enough to intervene? Big enough to be trusted? Big enough to be held in awe and ultimate respect? Big enough to erase your worries and replace them with peace?
God is prominent and preeminent. He is majestic in His power, magnificent in His person, and marvellous in His purposes. How refreshing to step back into the shadows of our own insignificance and give full attention to the greatness of our God! It's all about Him!
Job teaches us a valuable lesson: the greater the suffering, the better we determine what really matters. Now we come back to where we started: suffering helps us clarify our priorities and focus on right objectives.
Allow me to offer a simple definition of wisdom. Wisdom is looking at life from God's point of view. When we employ wisdom we are viewing life as God sees it. That's why it's so valuable to think God's thoughts. You look at difficulties and tests as God looks at them.
Cynthia and I recently returned from a life-changing tour of the sites made famous by a small group of strong-hearted, straight-thinking men. We know them today as Reformers. They were the leaders of the Great Reformation that swept across Central Europe in the sixteenth century.
Isn't that closing comment a great line? The wicked man may have more clothes in his closet, but he'll wind up leaving them to us. Remember the materialistic line that is framed around license plates? "He who dies with the most toys wins." The truth is, he who dies with the most toys passes them off to the righteous, and the righteous get to enjoy them!
Thinking God's thoughts is our highest goal. That's one of the reasons I'm such a proponent of the discipline of Scripture memorization. You cannot think God's thoughts more acutely than when you quote God's very words back to life's situations.
Indeed, how unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable are His ways. Now, be careful here. That does not mean He's not in touch, out of control, and He doesn't have a plan. It just means He isn't obligated to explain Himself.
Many years ago I came across this statement: "Pain plants the flag of reality in the fortress of a rebel heart." Even among those who have been stubborn and rebellious, when pain hits and persists, reality comes in full measure.
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