lift your eyes.
The book of Job has been ruining me lately. I've never really read Job's story before, so I am just constantly being blown away by its richness and how God has been using it in my life.
As you know, though this probably wasn't on a felt board in children's church, Job had it all. One could say he was very blessed. He was blessed indeed. Why? you may ask. Because he was "blameless and upright" in the LORD's eyes. Then, in one swift, fatal blow, he lost it all. Was this because of sin? No. Not at all, though his culture and his friends were telling him otherwise. God was allowing Satan to try and test Job to prove that Job was not a faithful God-follower because he was blessed, but that he was blessed because he was a faithful God follower. His relationship with God was not dependent on these material blessings, but it was contingent upon the blessing of knowing, communing with, and worshiping God.
We see this picture painted perfectly when we read through chapter one. Satan comes up from walking the earth--perhaps looking for "someone to devour" as 1 Peter 5:8 describes him--and into God's presence. God basically taunts him with a piece of meat, namely Job, in verse 8: "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" And Satan laughs in his face and says, "Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." God puts Job in Satan's hands. He doesn't stretch out his own hand--that is against his character, to punish the upright. But he allows Satan to come against all that he has, but not against his physical body.
And in one fatal blow, Satan orchestrates for all Job's property to be seized, all his livestock to be killed, and all his children and extended family to be murdered. Everything he ever had and everyone he ever loved (besides his wife, interestingly enough...perhaps because Satan knew she would actually encourage him in doing the very thing Satan wanted: for Job to curse God) was gone. But notice Job's response to these reports in verses 20-21. Picture it in your mind. Put yourself in the room.
"Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
I mean really. When you get bad news, do you turn on your worship playlist and fall on the ground in worship? I know I don't. But that is exactly what Job did here. His response was yes tears and pain, but his lifted his eyes from the circumstances to the God who was in complete, sovereign control.
I've been learning a lot about lifting my eyes. Off of my circumstances or cares and onto my Jesus. Who is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for me, knowing those circumstances and exactly how God is going to meet me in the midst of them and lead me every single step of the way. I heard a quote the other day on prayer, about how so often we spend so much time explaining our circumstances and problems to God (though He already knows them) that we forget to lift our eyes and see HOPE. In every circumstance.
Whether you are experience something like Job or you are just in a season, like me, of not knowing the next step to take or if that step might take you up a mountain or off a cliff. I'm in a stage where, if you remember or know anything about my Ruth posts or just know her beautiful story, I am in Bethlehem, the barely harvest is here. But I want a Boaz to share it with, ya know? Wow I'm being really vulnerable/honest right now, haha. And I'm kinda still looking back towards Moab, wondering if this new life stage is better than the old. Not that there was an Elimelech or anything. Ok, I'm rambling. Either way, either circumstance, God is the same. Never changes. Ever. Circumstances do change, every single moment of the day they change! But not our God! He is always always always worthy of our worship!
So we lift up our eyes to our amazing, unchanging God. He is all we need. Period. The biggest blessing we can ever hope to receive is simply Him, a relationship with Him. So lift your eyes. See Him. Be captivated by Him. Be changed by Him. Be commissioned by Him. Yes. He longs for us to lift our eyes and behold Him.
Psalm 121
"I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you y day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore."
As you know, though this probably wasn't on a felt board in children's church, Job had it all. One could say he was very blessed. He was blessed indeed. Why? you may ask. Because he was "blameless and upright" in the LORD's eyes. Then, in one swift, fatal blow, he lost it all. Was this because of sin? No. Not at all, though his culture and his friends were telling him otherwise. God was allowing Satan to try and test Job to prove that Job was not a faithful God-follower because he was blessed, but that he was blessed because he was a faithful God follower. His relationship with God was not dependent on these material blessings, but it was contingent upon the blessing of knowing, communing with, and worshiping God.
We see this picture painted perfectly when we read through chapter one. Satan comes up from walking the earth--perhaps looking for "someone to devour" as 1 Peter 5:8 describes him--and into God's presence. God basically taunts him with a piece of meat, namely Job, in verse 8: "Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?" And Satan laughs in his face and says, "Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face." God puts Job in Satan's hands. He doesn't stretch out his own hand--that is against his character, to punish the upright. But he allows Satan to come against all that he has, but not against his physical body.
And in one fatal blow, Satan orchestrates for all Job's property to be seized, all his livestock to be killed, and all his children and extended family to be murdered. Everything he ever had and everyone he ever loved (besides his wife, interestingly enough...perhaps because Satan knew she would actually encourage him in doing the very thing Satan wanted: for Job to curse God) was gone. But notice Job's response to these reports in verses 20-21. Picture it in your mind. Put yourself in the room.
"Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
I mean really. When you get bad news, do you turn on your worship playlist and fall on the ground in worship? I know I don't. But that is exactly what Job did here. His response was yes tears and pain, but his lifted his eyes from the circumstances to the God who was in complete, sovereign control.
I've been learning a lot about lifting my eyes. Off of my circumstances or cares and onto my Jesus. Who is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for me, knowing those circumstances and exactly how God is going to meet me in the midst of them and lead me every single step of the way. I heard a quote the other day on prayer, about how so often we spend so much time explaining our circumstances and problems to God (though He already knows them) that we forget to lift our eyes and see HOPE. In every circumstance.
Whether you are experience something like Job or you are just in a season, like me, of not knowing the next step to take or if that step might take you up a mountain or off a cliff. I'm in a stage where, if you remember or know anything about my Ruth posts or just know her beautiful story, I am in Bethlehem, the barely harvest is here. But I want a Boaz to share it with, ya know? Wow I'm being really vulnerable/honest right now, haha. And I'm kinda still looking back towards Moab, wondering if this new life stage is better than the old. Not that there was an Elimelech or anything. Ok, I'm rambling. Either way, either circumstance, God is the same. Never changes. Ever. Circumstances do change, every single moment of the day they change! But not our God! He is always always always worthy of our worship!
So we lift up our eyes to our amazing, unchanging God. He is all we need. Period. The biggest blessing we can ever hope to receive is simply Him, a relationship with Him. So lift your eyes. See Him. Be captivated by Him. Be changed by Him. Be commissioned by Him. Yes. He longs for us to lift our eyes and behold Him.
Psalm 121
"I lift up my eyes to the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you y day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore."
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