Finding God

Job 23:8 "Look, I go forward, but He is not there, And backward, but I cannot perceive Him; 9 When He works on the left hand, I cannot behold Him; When He turns to the right hand, I cannot see Him. 10 But He knows the way that I take; When He has tested me, I shall come forth as gold. 11 My foot has held fast to His steps; I have kept His way and not turned aside. 12 I have not departed from the commandment of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. 13 "But He is unique, and who can make Him change? And whatever His soul desires, that He does.

When we face times of trouble, it is almost certain we will be forced to seek relief outside of ourselves. There is no one we know who can genuinely help us, (at least as far as resolving all the very-real problems we face,) but we have learned there is something very healing and helpful about being able to talk to someone who is compassionate to our greatest felt needs.

Now, if only those compassionate persons we speak with in times of trouble could really do more than listen! Wouldn’t it be wonderful to speak to someone who could heal you? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to speak to someone who could take away your grief? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to speak with someone who could absolve your debt, or ease your pain, or take away all your worries and concerns for your family, or the world?

Imagine if somehow you may be ushered into the presence of the Living God. For the purpose of illustration, imagine if you could crawl up on God’s lap, just like He was a department store Santa Claus. You could ask Him to solve whatever problem you may have…

Wouldn’t that be wonderful – and wouldn’t that give you total confidence all your problems were at an end? If only you could see God, and have the ability to speak to Him and let Him know what is going wrong in your life…?

Unfortunately, many, if not most, Christians do have this concept of God as being a kind-of Santa Claus. I think the lines may be blurred because of the presence of St. Nick in our upbringing. Who knows? But the point is we must have more than a crisis God who appears as necessary to us only when our lives are completely upside down. Job is facing the worst problems he has ever faced, and he knows not where to find God. He has kept all the rules to the best of his ability, but all of his rule-keeping has not produced an ability to see God or know where He may be found.

The word of God Job speaks of is designed to produce in us more than a “rules-keeping” mentality, where keeping rules merits favor and breaking rules means pain and suffering. (Switches and ashes.) The true purpose is to know God, and to know WHERE He may be found in time of need – in His Word, by truly understanding we are ALWAYS in time of need. The Word is where God may be found. Have you found Him there?

- Pastor Bill