Living in the Spirit
October 5, 2015

Scripture Reading: Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Then Job answered:
 ‘Today also my complaint is bitter;
   his hand is heavy despite my groaning.
O that I knew where I might find him,
   that I might come even to his dwelling!
I would lay my case before him,
   and fill my mouth with arguments.
I would learn what he would answer me,
   and understand what he would say to me.
Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?
   No; but he would give heed to me.
There an upright person could reason with him,
   and I should be acquitted forever by my judge. –Job 23:1-9

Feeling separated from God is painful. Job had lost everything including his own health, and he felt he had also lost God. O that I knew where I might find him. Job probably was wondering what he might have done to have suffered such loss. O that I knew where I might find him.

Years ago I placed a little four year old boy in a wonderful foster home with a father that instantly took the little guy under his wings. The boy had been through a lot and needed the powerful love of this man. After living with the family for several months, the father was very critically injured in a work related accident and it was determined that the couples’ returning home to another state to the nurture and care of extended family was needed. They wanted to take the boy with them but his court status would not allow it. When I picked him up to move him to another foster home as we drove away from the house, he said, “Marilynn, I have just thought and thought of ways to talk you out of this and I just can’t.” I thought of that when I read from Job: I would lay my case before him, and fill my mouth with arguments.

God is always there even when we are so bent over with mental, emotional, or even physical pain we do not sense God. My prayer for the little boy was having known such wonderful and unconditional love from his foster father, the boy carried a powerful witness to his own worth throughout his life. God’s love is like that every day.

Prayer: Lord, let us experience your love as fully as we are capable of doing and let your love move through us to help others experience it. Amen.

All scriptures are quoted from the New Revised Standard Version Bible: Anglicized Edition, copyright 1989, 1995, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of American. Used by permission. All rights reserved.