Just a Friendly Reminder from God…

SCRIPTURE:

OBSERVATION:

Have you ever received an email that started with “just a friendly reminder…” because you forgot to remember something? And when you receive that email, you wonder if it was actually sent with friendly intentions, or if it was just a passive aggressive cover up for their frustration? Today, God sends that same friendly reminder to us. But unlike an email from man, we don’t have to doubt His intentions––for He send this reminder to us in the most loving and caring way possible.

Job chapter 38 is when we finally hear God enter the conversation. After hearing from his three friends, a young observer, and from himself, God Himself enters the conversation. He begins to speak to Job in his weariness, confusion, and desolation. Remember, Job is in the midst of a whirlwind of doubt and disappointment. Job has more questions about God and his situation than answers, and he’s been fed incorrect answers by his friends and onlookers. Yet, despite all five’s doubts, incorrect statements, and mischaracterizations of God, God does not attack Job or come with a bitter, angry, indignant heart. However, He does speak the truth directly. But rather than accuse with statements, God convicts with questions, allowing Job to come to the right conclusions about God and about His situation himself.

God asks Job questions like:

• Were you there when I laid the foundations of the Earth?
• Who was the one who set boundaries for the seas?
• Who provides food for the ravens when they cry out for help?

And eventually, through His loving reminders, Job allows the conviction of God to correct his anxious mind. God’s conviction erases the doubt left by the four friends and onlookers who wrongly accuse Job. And God’s truthful questions reminds Job that He is not God, and that His limited mind cannot fathom the infinite, only-good mind of God who sees all past, all present, and all future together, all at the same time.

APPLICATION:

Are you in a situation that leaves you doubtful about God? Do you wonder if God is there or if any good could come out of this? Has your understanding, or circumstances, or even the incorrect voices of friends led you to forget the goodness, grace, and character of God?

If so, just a friendly reminder that God is still God, and you are not. And praise God, because that is a good thing! Thank goodness that we are not God because we are limited in our understanding. Thank goodness that we are not God because we make decisions and do things that fall short all the time. Thank goodness that we are not God because God loves us so much more than we could even love ourselves.

Remind yourself of the character of your God and know His heart for you. 

• “8 The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. 9 He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; 10 he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities” (Psalm 103:8-10 NIV). 
• “9 The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9 NLT). 
• "8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8 NIV).

And when you finally remember His character, just like God asked Job, let God ask you these same questions, and let His conviction lead you to repentance. And most importantly, be glad that you don’t know the answers to all of these questions––for the only one who does loves you, is for you, and desires you to thrive.

• “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me, if you know so much.” (Job 38:4 NLT)
• “Who determined its dimensions and stretched out the surveying line?” (Job 38:5 NLT)
• “What supports its foundations, and who laid its cornerstone as the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38:6–7 NLT)
• “Who kept the sea inside its boundaries as it burst from the womb, and as I clothed it with clouds and wrapped it in thick darkness?” (Job 38:8–9 NLT)
• “Have you ever commanded the morning to appear and caused the dawn to rise in the east?” (Job 38:12 NLT)
• “Have you made daylight spread to the ends of the earth, to bring an end to the night’s wickedness?” (Job 38:13 NLT)
• “Have you explored the springs from which the seas come? Have you explored their depths?” (Job 38:16 NLT)
• “Do you know where the gates of death are located? Have you seen the gates of utter gloom?” (Job 38:17 NLT)
• “Do you realize the extent of the earth? Tell me about it if you know!” (Job 38:18 NLT)
• “Where does light come from, and where does darkness go?” (Job 38:19 NLT)
• “Can you take each to its home? Do you know how to get there?” (Job 38:20 NLT)
• “Have you visited the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of hail?” (Job 38:22 NLT)
• “Where is the path to the source of light? Where is the home of the east wind?” (Job 38:24 NLT)
• “Who created a channel for the torrents of rain? Who laid out the path for the lightning?” (Job 38:25 NLT)
• “Who makes the rain fall on barren land, in a desert where no one lives?” (Job 38:26 NLT)
• “Who sends rain to satisfy the parched ground and make the tender grass spring up?” (Job 38:27 NLT)
• “Does the rain have a father? Who gives birth to the dew?” (Job 38:28 NLT)
• “Who is the mother of the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens?” (Job 38:29 NLT)
• “Can you direct the movement of the stars—binding the cluster of the Pleiades or loosening the cords of Orion?” (Job 38:31 NLT)
• “Can you direct the constellations through the seasons or guide the Bear with her cubs across the heavens?” (Job 38:32 NLT)
• “Do you know the laws of the universe? Can you use them to regulate the earth?” (Job 38:33 NLT)
• “Can you shout to the clouds and make it rain?” (Job 38:34 NLT)
• “Can you make lightning appear and cause it to strike as you direct?” (Job 38:35 NLT)
• “Who gives intuition to the heart and instinct to the mind?” (Job 38:36 NLT)
• “Who is wise enough to count all the clouds? Who can tilt the water jars of heaven when the parched ground is dry and the soil has hardened into clods?” (Job 38:37–38 NLT)
• “Can you stalk prey for a lioness and satisfy the young lions’ appetites as they lie in their dens or crouch in the thicket?” (Job 38:39–40 NLT)
• “Who provides food for the ravens when their young cry out to God and wander about in hunger?” (Job 38:41 NLT)

 We are not God…and thank goodness we are not. Surrender your situation to God. Re-surrender your life to God. Calibrate your mind according to the One who is in control, and rather than let your circumstances affect how you see God, let God affect how you see your circumstances. You might not understand everything you’re going through, but He does. So trust Him with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, submit to Him, and He WILL make your paths straight.

PRAYER:

God,

Thank You that You are in control and that I am not. Thank You that You see me, you know me, and you know how my life is meant to fit into your eternity––past, present, and future. Thank You that I can trust You always and that while my limited understanding may fail me, You never will. I repent for the times where, like Job, I have forgotten that You are God. I repent for letting people and circumstances lead me to believe that You were any less good or any less powerful than You are. I ask for Your forgiveness, and I come back to You––the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the One who Was and Is and Is to Come. You are God, and I am not. And I thank You that You are my God, and that I am Your child. I love You, my Father and my Lord. Thank You for loving me.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen