Episode 65 | Say Less: Lessons from Job on presence, humility and trusting in God’s sovereignty

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We are all different. Shocking, I know. Every one of us was built with strengths
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and weaknesses that are uniquely our own.
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But I would venture that there is one thing that may be universally hard for
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each one of us. Sitting in silence.
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There are moments when the lack of noise is deafening. The absence of speaking
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brings us discomfort that is nearly tangible.
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But there's another level of tension entirely when we're asked to sit in silence
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amid someone else's suffering.
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That kind of silence will gnaw at you from the inside out.
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Fun fact about me, I usually start my chronological Bible reading plan for the
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year sometime in the fall, between September and October.
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Who says that you have to start in January, you know?
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Anywho, I am right in the middle of Job, which has been fitting as I have watched
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some recent events unfold in my church family and local community.
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Whether it be suffering in our own lives or walking alongside the suffering
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of others, suffering in and of itself is not something that we can avoid this side of glory.
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Every time I'm in this book, I learn something new. I always find myself fascinated,
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perplexed, awestruck, or meditated by the events recorded in this story.
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The thing that's gripped my thoughts this go-round is the fact that God deemed
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it necessary to record 29 chapters of man's words.
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That means that nearly 70% of the book is filled with a record kept of conversation
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between Job and his friends Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar.
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Just because something is recorded in Scripture, though, doesn't mean it is divinely endorsed.
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Not every word in the Bible is God's own speech, yet the whole of it makes up the Word of God.
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This is a tension worth sitting with because we always have something to learn.
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Nothing in this infallible book is recorded by accident and every bit of it
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points us back to the heart of God.
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All of Scripture is God-breathed, alive, and active.
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It is always profitable for teaching, proof, correction, and training in righteousness.
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Read in context, it is the true and inerrant word of God, the only sure foundation
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for our faith. But let's learn.
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I'm not going to break down the book of Job in its entirety,
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but I do want to share some thoughts that have been ruminating around in my
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brain, and you can do with them what you want. After all, that's why this space exists, right?
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At the end of Job chapter 2, we see Job's friends on their way to show sympathy
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and comfort to Job and his suffering.
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Coming upon Job, they barely recognize him. They begin to weep and mourn for
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their friend, tearing their robes and putting dust on their heads.
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The men come, gather around Job, and sit on the ground with him in silence for
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seven days and seven nights.
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Job's suffering was so great that no one spoke. And although nothing noteworthy
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came from their lips, this may be his friend's finest moment throughout the
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whole time they were with Job.
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Job breaks the silence in chapter 3 with a lament. This man has lost everything.
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His health has deteriorated, his family is gone, his riches stripped away.
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Job wishes he had never been conceived or that he would have died at birth.
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His depression runs so deep he begs to die that he may feel some reprieve.
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Job says some things in his pain throughout this book that are not accurate
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but are honestly what he feels.
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Because that's the thing about lament. It can be honest without being true.
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God being rich in mercy makes room for us to speak openly and honestly in our
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pain even if not everything uttered is accurate.
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He doesn't leave our misunderstandings uncorrected but patiently corrects with the truth.
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Job's pain is real, raw, and heavy. So heavy that Eliphaz feels the need to chime in.
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Days earlier, he had come in sympathy, to be a comfort at his friend's side.
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Now he chooses to use his words eloquently, albeit ignorantly.
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Was it Job's honesty about how much pain he was in that made Eliphaz feel the
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need to start rationalizing why Job was suffering?
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Can you see yourself in Job's friends? I know I can. Why do we always want to fix things?
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Job and his companions have much to say over the course of this story,
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especially for people who never got to read the first two chapters of this book.
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They don't know that Satan has gotten permission from God to bring suffering upon Job's life.
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They have not read ahead to see that what Satan planned to use as torture and
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torment in Job's life, God purposed to use as refining trials.
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The human heart is deceitful above all else, and it is God alone that searches
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and tests the mind of mankind.
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So whether it be Job pleading his case and lamenting his pain,
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or the ill-informed theology of Job's friends, it is God alone that is the judge of this entire story.
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The tension this story holds is almost hard for me to put into words.
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How does a sin-stained heart reconcile the fact that God is always good and
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life can often be extremely hard?
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Maybe my reflections will leave you with more questions than answers.
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What I hope is that maybe we will come to see in the process that saying less
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and doing less doesn't mean you're accomplishing less.
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Maybe it's our human nature to always feel like we need to be accomplishing
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something The more we are speaking, exerting, and fixing, the more valuable we feel,
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Even if we didn't set out on the journey this way, our natural destination is
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more often than not self-focused,
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We feel useful if we can aid in the solution We feel important if we can help,
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encourage, or change someone's stance in their suffering We rarely feel more
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vulnerable than when we admit that our destination is sometimes, I don't know.
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It proved no easier back then for Job's friends to say less than it does today,
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in a world saturated with people using their words to fill all kinds of voids.
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For the record, the irony about writing an article using words to talk about
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saying less words is not lost on me, but I digress.
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We underestimate the power of presence. We gaze past the usefulness of quiet
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companionship for comfort.
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What would this story have looked like if Job's community gathered around him
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and prayed instead of prostulated?
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Whether we are on Job's end desiring to plead our cause before God Almighty,
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or on the questioning end like his friends assuming we know better, we must tread lightly.
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Having questions for God and questioning God are not the same thing.
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Job learns the difference.
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After God speaks, Job places his hand over his mouth.
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In God's abundant grace, he gave each of these men the ability and the freedom
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to speak, to form opinions, to make accusations and assumptions.
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In his rich mercy, he allows them to carry on with their words,
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even in the midst of their lack of understanding the full picture.
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Their freedom was real, but so was their accountability. Skipping ahead to the
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end, God tells Eliphaz, you have not spoken of me what is right,
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yet he still extends mercy.
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He invites Job to pray for his friends who wounded him. God never lost control of this story.
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What a reminder that we will all one day give an account. We are so free in
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so many ways because of the divine allowance of choice.
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Our freedom exists because of God's sovereignty, not in spite of it.
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What a paradox to wrap our minds around.
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I've come to a deeper realization over the years. Sovereignty is a difficult
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thing to understand for someone who lacks the ability to exercise it,
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And it often leads us down roads we wouldn't choose We like simple lives of
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ease But God's plans will always put us in places that shape our hearts to resemble Christ,
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Surrendering our path to him will always make our path straight But rarely will
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we be found traveling a linear road.
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Our lack of understanding or answers does not mean that those answers and reasons do not exist.
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They exist, we just don't like that we aren't owed an explanation.
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Assuming we know the cause of suffering puts us in a position of authority that
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we are far too underqualified to carry out.
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I heard this analogy not long ago and it gave me a fresh perspective on trying
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to find reasons that tie a nice neat bow on life's unanswered wonderings.
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We often are trying to figure God out, to dissect and to pick apart his being,
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analyze his nature, to put a box around our understanding of the holy triune God.
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We attempt to place God under a microscope that we may zoom in and try to inspect him.
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But what we're missing in our understanding is that we are the ones on the inspection
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slide looking up at the eye looking through the microscope.
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We are looking up at God Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth,
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only able to see in part what we will one day see in full.
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And the fact that he allows us any glimpse at what he is like is an undeserved
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favor because he is kind.
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The sovereignty of God is an invitation for us to humbly admit that we do not belong in that role.
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If we do not belong in that role, then we can stop trying to fill it in someone
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else's pain and just be with them.
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Maybe keeping a record of all these words amongst faith-filled friends was in
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part to show us that a greater quantity of something isn't always a marker of value.
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As someone who is a natural-born talker, maybe the record of all this yapping hits me differently.
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Learning to say less has been a lesson I've had to learn the hard way.
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I have a genuine bend toward helping others with encouragement or counsel.
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Even in my youth, I was someone who others came to for talking,
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advice, encouragement, or opinions.
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And I still desire to help others, especially when it comes to how I use my words.
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Do you have something that others call out in you? That thing that you're known
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for or that others can always count on? Words have been that thing for me.
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I've been told from the time I could speak, you're an old soul,
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or you are wise beyond your years.
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Others would quip, one day she'll be a lawyer, which, by the way,
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I have never had a single desire to pursue.
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Some giggle as I begin a story or say something because they know they should
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buckle up for a ride where they'll receive all of the details.
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I've always been overly cautious of how others see me. Even as I share this,
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I hesitate because I never want anything I say to come across as self-righteous.
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And because that's how people have seen me, there were times I have felt a pressure
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to perform or hide my insecurity when I simply just didn't have the words.
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I'm as normal as they come. I have nothing wildly impressive about me.
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I've always been smart, but I'm not college educated.
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I am ordinary in every sense of the meaning. Even my personality itself is very agreeable.
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It's taken me much of my life to understand that this ability to use words or
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even possess a wise thought is a gift from God and God alone.
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There have been times where I have used my best quality and most grace-filled
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gift as one of my worst traits and undesirable qualities.
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The lesson of saying less is a lesson I still need reminding of.
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Understanding the implications of words used unwisely is a useful lesson that
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produces a humble cautiousness that I will never stop practicing.
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I only share this because using my words wisely is not something I am able to do in my own strength.
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I've been a witness to not only how hurtful and unhelpful my own words can be
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if left unbridled, but also the destruction the words of others have caused
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when used in a superfluous manner.
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The firsthand experiences I've been through have lent themselves useful to my
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understanding of needing to pray.
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Set a guard, O Lord, over my mouth. Keep watch over the door of my lips. Psalm 141, verse 3.
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Job knew this helplessness too.
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He makes an important observation at the end of chapter 9. He says,
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God is not a mortal like me, so I cannot argue with him or take him to trial.
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If only there were a mediator between us, someone who could bring us together.
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The mediator could make God stop beating me and I would no longer live in terror of his punishment.
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Then I could speak to him without fear, but I cannot do that in my own strength.
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This is the New Living Translation from Job 9, verses 32 to 35.
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You see, we lack the ability to communicate rightly with God in our own strength.
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He is so much greater, higher, and holier than we will ever understand.
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We all need a mediator.
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Someone to stand in that gap between our unrighteousness and His righteousness.
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Jesus alone fills that role, and He alone is worthy of such a role.
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You will never find anyone who is more present than Christ. He is our fullest
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yes, our most humble servant, our only sufficient Savior.
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He is our most perfect high priest and our most compassionate friend.
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We can only understand the importance of saying less when we know more fully
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the one who knows the whole picture.
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Christ alone is the fulfillment that Job was longing for and the mediator he
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desired yet couldn't see.
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Jesus, the one who came near, is the one who is fully present with us in our
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suffering while at the same time remaining fully sovereign over it.
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Our God is the source of all true wisdom. Fearing his holy and awesome name is the starting line.
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Beginning at the throne of grace and returning to scripture,
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resting in the one who knows the ending before the beginning is a powerful place to be.
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Being still at his feet may not require us to speak. It may not always spell
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out the answers, but it will always place us in the presence of the one who gives us a living hope.
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Job's hope grew while he was still in the middle of his anguish and ashes,
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not after he emerged from it on the other side.
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He cried out, For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth.
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Job 19.25 He never said he understood why he was suffering. He only proclaimed
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he knew who was his everlasting hope.
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Whether in personal seasons of hurting or in the presence of a loved one's pain,
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we can know the who even when we do not know the why.
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Christ's presence in our pain grants us the strength and peace we need to endure.
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His sovereignty over our sufferings gives us the ability to rest in His comfort.
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Friends, saying less when we lack a sovereign perspective isn't a waste. It's God-given wisdom.
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Before we go today, let's hide a little bit more of God's Word in our hearts
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together. This comes to us today from James 1, and I'm going to read verses 19-26.
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Hear these words. Know this, my beloved brothers. Let every person be quick
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to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger.
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For the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
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Therefore put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness
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the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
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Be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
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For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks
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intently at his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away
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and at once forgets what he looks like.
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But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty,
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and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts,
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he will be blessed in his doing.
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If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives
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his heart, this person's religion is worthless.
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Amen. Thanks be to God for the gift of His infallible Word.
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Thank you all for being with me today. I am Gianna, and I am so glad you were here.
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If you were encouraged, I would love it if you joined me again.
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So don't forget to subscribe and to tell a friend too that they might be encouraged.
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You can find the various ways of how to get a hold of me down below in the show
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notes. I always love hearing your feedback.
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And also don't forget to check out those scripture references in the show notes today as well.
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Until next time, I pray you know the power of learning to say less,
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especially when we cannot see the full picture.
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I hope when we are tempted to speak of things too wonderful for us,
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we would remember the one who nothing is too lofty for and humbly place our trust in him.
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I pray that you remember all of your days that this good news,
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it was always meant to be shared. I'll see you next time, church.