Tag Archives: Job 38

Drawing breath

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“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law….. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him..

(Det 29.29; 30.19&20)

Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen? Can you bind the beautiful Pleiades? Can you loose the cords of Orion? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the bear with its cubs?           

           Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth?

(Job 38.28-33)

Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?…. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

(Matt 6.26&27,34)

Be patient.. until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop and how patient he is for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near… As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

(Jas 5.7,8 &11)

My soul, draw breath: turn your inner ear away from the cacophony of voices which are calling you names, reminding you of weakness, folly, errors and failure. 

My soul, draw breath: turn your eye away from the list of things you ‘should’ be doing, the things that are ‘good and worthy’, the great towering mountain of expectations that you feel obliged to fulfil.

My soul, draw breath: your Lord is near, and while you deafen yourself by telling over the lists, you cannot hear him; while you fix your eyes on the expectations, you cannot see him.

My soul, draw breath: remember just how much has been done for you, in the name of love, and by whom. Remember that your smallness does not require you to work harder than ever to achieve and to succeed. Remember that your riches are inherited, not earned, and that the loving hand which gives so generously is your Father, not your employer. There are no conditions attached, only the invitation to respond in love and adoration.

My soul, draw breath: yes, there is so much that you do not understand and cannot bear to think about. But remember who holds those secret things in his keeping: He holds you too, as his beloved. In the closest places of his heart you are present and precious. Nothing happens to you beyond his knowledge, and the burdens belong to him, who alone is able to bear them in justice and holiness, doing all things well.

Almighty God, the secret things belong to you, and sometimes that great amount of unknown threatens to overwhelm me – both my immediate questions, and the wider ones affecting your people around the world. But one of the things revealed is your power in creation, and so much more than power; brilliance, artistry, wisdom, vastness, and majesty. You are the great artist, the ultimate maker, and I praise you today. Thank you for human artistry which can help me to take time to look, really stop and contemplate the beauty of the details as well as the big pictures. Thank you for those whose gifts of word, hand and tongue cast light on your creative genius and help me to see it afresh – to find rest in contemplation of your handiwork.

Thank you, that when I take time to receive from you the daily bounty of beauty, the love in every detail, I can live in gratitude and in expectation of what you are yet to do. Thank you that this contemplation restores my perspective, and I am reminded that my place is not to uncover every secret, but to live for you on the basis of what is revealed to me. The burden lifts, as I humble myself before my maker and accept my limitations.

Draw breath my soul: look, listen, and remember what is true. And then let your song rise to your Lord, as you rest in him today. 

When morning gilds the skies..

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Then the Lord answered Job out of the storm. He said: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge?….Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone – while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?… Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?

(Job 38.1,4,6,7,12&13)

Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord from the heavens! Praise him from the skies! Praise him, all his angels! Praise him, all the armies of heaven! Praise him, sun and moon! Praise him all you twinkling stars! Praise him skies above!.. Let every created thing give praise to the Lord, for he issued his command, and they came into being. 

(Psalm 148.1-3,5)

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

(Philippians 2.9-11)

O Lord, let me wake in my right mind tomorrow.. so that my first thoughts are not of the unsettled sleep of the night; nor of the aches and pains of my ageing body; but of you.

O Lord, let me wake in my right mind tomorrow…so that my first thoughts are not of the fragility of the lives of my loved ones; nor of the troubles, trials and temptations they are facing; but of you.

O Lord, let me wake in my right mind tomorrow….so that my first thoughts are not of the tasks which I must accomplish; nor of the pleasures in which I hope to indulge; but of you.

Who or what am I, that I should differ from all the rest of creation, by failing to praise you, my creator, with every breath and every fibre of my being?

Who, or what am I, that I should demand an accounting from the almighty, eternal God, for his dealings with me, instead of worshipping him in prostrate adoration, and freely confessing his right to do exactly as he pleases?

Who, or what am I, that I should believe that alone among all people, I have trials and difficulties which are beyond God’s care or capacity to deal with?

May I be forgiven, in the name of my sweet and glorious Lord, for such foolish, wicked arrogance. May I realise more clearly than ever, that I can trust God, in all his ways, because in Christ he has revealed his love for me. May I let that love so heal my thinking that I no longer doubt him, or when doubting yet claim his promises and refuse to despair.

I have been shown the loving face of God, the Almighty and unimaginably other, in the person of Jesus, his son. I have been given the revelation of God’s love in action, the story of his great plan to redeem his creation from its bondage to decay. I have seen glimpses – all that the human mind can bear – of the glory which is assured to me through his promises to all who call Jesus Lord. And do I still dare to allow my own sin-skewed perspective to twist the truth about him into lies?

Oh God, give me the clear-sight which I need, so that I see things straight again. Let me see that everything, all creation, all humankind, is here solely that your Son, your beloved one, might receive the glory you desire and which is his due. In your astonishing love and mercy, you have set your love upon us, and plan for our blessing; but the end of it all is so much bigger than that!

Let me join daily with the morning stars, as they rejoice together in the dawn, and praise the eternal Word from whom they sprang; let me think not of myself, but of him and be so entranced by his beauty and worth that all the shadows of my own life shrink into their proper size, and no longer dominate my thinking.

When morning gilds the skies my heart awaking cries, may Jesus Christ be praised!

Alike at work and prayer, to Jesus I repair: May Jesus Christ be praised!

Be this, while life is mine, my canticle* divine, may Jesus Christ be praised!

Be this the eternal song through all the ages long, may Jesus Christ be praised!

( German 19th century; translated Ed Caswall, 1814-78)

*canticle – a song