Today's Devotional is written by Pastor Roy Summers
Still in Print 50 years Later!
In the early 1970s this book was "all the craze." People all over were saying that it had changed their lives.
It's the personal story of Merlin Carothers whose life was changed by the power of the Gospel. An angry tear-away of a young man, he ended up guarding General Eisenhower in Frankfurt,
Germany. One day attending church out of duty with
his grandparents, Merlin heard God speak to him to make a decision to
follow him or it would be too late. He repented and believed. God called him
to the ministry and this book is the adventure of lessons that allowed him to live each day with joy and thanksgiving and praise.
The book is still in print because it has stood the test of time and proved its value and worth. (If only we could peer into the future, how much money some of us would save on books!)
Our memory verse for today is:
"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." (Job 1:21)
Empty-handed In and Out
Just before these words, Job had said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I shall depart."
Job was a remarkable man who had contemplated life and life's tragedies before they befell him.
He had thought long and hard about the start and end of life. He knew that he had come into the world without any possessions and he was aware that he would have to leave this world in exactly the same way.
So when in a moment he lost everything he'd accumulated in this life, he reasoned, rather soundly, that it was no big deal. He had come into this life with nothing and if he hadn't lost everything in the last few days, he would lose it during the hour of his death.
Job might sound as if he is "on the spectrum", responding rather matter-of-factly to great tragedy, but could it just be that his spiritual vision was far more acute than ours? Vibrant faith often sounds harsh in a faithless world.
Perpetual Praise
There is one more spiritual calculation in Job's words. Not only had he "coldly" calculated the gains and losses of life, he had seen that they were all in the sovereign gifting of God. Let's hear it again:
"The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised." (Job 1:21)
Everything he had accumulated in life had come from God, the seven sons and three daughters, the seven thousand sheep, the three thousand camels, the five hundred yoke of oxen....
And now that same Lord had taken them away. He is God and he can do as he pleases, and his will is always good and perfect.
So Job armed with these two doctrinal perspectives on his present situation: the fact that he would have to leave everything one day, anyway, and the fact that everything we have comes from the sovereign Lord, lead him to praise, "May the name of the Lord be praised."
Summing it All Up
When trouble comes our way, as it most surely will - as certainly as sparks fly upwards - it is our deep understanding of life and the ways of the Lord that will help us through.
If we lose something, well, there was a past day when we never had that thing, it was given to us by God. And there will be a future day when we will be parted from it.
And the God who gave is the same God who now has taken away. And he can be trusted and his ways can be trusted. So may the name of the Lord be praised. Always, and forever.
A SONG FOR THE DAY
Just as an older book comes to mind, so too an older song. "From the rising of the Sun" do you remember? It's a reminder to praise God all the time.
From the rising of the sun
To the going down of the same
The Lord's Name is to be praised
Praise Him all ye servants of the Lord
Praise the Name of the Lord
Blessed be the Name of the Lord
From this time forth
Now and forevermore
A PRAYER FOR THE DAY
Our loving and eternal Father in heaven,
All your ways are good. We thank you for every good gift which we acknowledge has come from your hands.
We remember that we will leave this world without anything, just as we entered it empty.
Teach us to keep a light touch on all that we call "ours" by remembering it has come from you, belongs to you, and one day you will ask us how we stewarded it.
So whatever we may "lose," help us to praise the name of the Lord, as Job did.
We ask this in the Holy name of Jesus,
Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment