Key Verse: Job 31:35
Oh, that I had one to hear me! Here is my mark. Oh, that the Almighty would answer me, that my Prosecutor had written a book!
Job…He does hear you! God, the One you mistakenly think is prosecuting you, has indeed written a book! We are studying it every day on this blog. Job…in today’s reading you’ve used the word “if” 18 times. That word “if” is just a little word, but it is filled with uncertainty. You can be certain and know God answers prayer!
In a handwritten book dated January 20, 1953, my father, Roy Mainse, D.Th, wrote about the conditions of prevailing prayer:
(1) Entire dependence on the merits and mediation of the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way for a claim of blessing! (see John 14:13-14).
(2) Separation from all known sin. Psalm 66:18 tells us, “If we regard iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us.”
(3) Faith in God’s promises as confirmed by His oath. Not to believe Him is to make Him out to be a liar and perjurer (see Hebrews 6:13-20).
(4) Our motives must be godly; we must not seek any gift of God to consume it on our own selfish desires (see James 4:1-10).
(5) Importunity and supplication! There must be waiting on God with consistency (see Luke 18:1-8).
PRAYER FOR TODAY:
Lord Jesus, through James, the man known as Your brother, You told us that, “The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much” (James 5:16b). You are the “Righteous One,” therefore, I come to You, Lord God, in and through the Person and work of Your Son and my Saviour and Lord, Jesus Christ. Here are my prayer requests for today ……….. AMEN!!! (I spent considerable time in prayer before composing this blog.)
100 PERSONAL WORDS:
I’ve been meditating on that little but powerful word “if.” I went into Google and found the famous poem by Rudyard Kipling written in 1894 entitled “If” (click here). Job might have been helped by this poem. One of the lines says, “If you can wait, and not be tired of waiting, or being lied about, don’t deal in lies, or, being hated, don’t give way to hating…” The poem ends with these words: “If you can fill the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run, Yours is the earth and everything in it, And — what is more— you’ll be a man, my son!” My Dad pointed me to this poem when I was still a child. After his death in 1972, I found amongst Dad’s writings the following poem he wrote in his own handwriting. It’s also entitled “If”…
“If” is a word of great import,
But of such dwarfish dimensions
Using the future to support
It’s great and varied intentions
“If” is a fact like a barn-door hinge,
On which our movements seem to swing,
And we are no doubt hindering
Our best laid plans ere they can wing
Their way into the world of things,
Where they can claim to be a fact,
On which the future thus may act,
And discard “If” forevermore
Among the gods of old folk-lore.
Yours, for reaching out diligently for God’s perfect will,
David
Up Next in Year 2 | August
-
100 Words - YR2 August 27 - The 4th F...
Key Verses: Job 32:6-7
So Elihu, the son of Barachel the Buzite, answered and said: “I am young in years, and you are very old; therefore I was afraid, and dared not declare my opinion to you. I said, ‘Age should speak, and multitude of years should teach wisdom.’…”Elihu tells us he is ...
-
100 Words - YR2 August 28 - Songs In ...
Key Verses: Job 35:7, 10
If you are righteous, what do you give Him? Or what does He receive from your hand?…But no one says, ‘Where is God my Maker, Who gives songs in the night?…’Many questions, but what about answers? Elihu picks up on some of the things Job has said. He points out J...
-
100 Words - YR2 August 29 - Stand Still
Key Verse: Job 37:14
Listen to this, O Job; Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.The theology of this young man Elihu was right on. However, his judgment of Job was unfair and far from correct in God’s eyes. God had said of Job, “There is none like him in all the earth, a ...