If it had not been the Lord who was on our side, then our foe would have swallowed us alive, the flood would have swept us away, and over us would have gone the raging waters! Our help is in the name of the Lord, who made heaven and earth! I will praise Him and continue to look for His guidance today and every day!
I empathize with Job, as I read today’s second reading. Job continues the words of reply to Bildad, as he compares his status before God. As Job describes it, it does indeed at times seem that we are pitted against God. Job uses language that likens his situation to a trial, with no arbiter to hear his case impartially, before God. His friends were of little help, in this regard, and he declares his frustration again by declaring, “I loathe my life.” Realizing this to be his situation, he pleads his own case again before God. Lord, help me when I become frustrated like Job, with the trials of my life, to continue to remember that Your care has preserved my spirit; that I am fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14); and like Job and Jeremiah, you knew me and had a plan for me even before I was born (Jeremiah 1:5)!
Today’s Readings: Psalm 124; Job 9-10; Isaiah 29:1-30:17; 1 John 2:18-3:3
The Lord speaks to me today, through His prophet Isaiah, to remind me of the consequences of becoming indifferent to His message. As I have said before in this blog, how blessed I am to live at a time in history when I see the whole picture of God’s plan to reform the moral order of the world. There is certainly more to be written in the history of man before the existing world order is burned up and dissolved (2 Peter 3:10) and the Lord returns to inflict vengeance on those who do not Know God (2 Thessalonians 1:5-10), but today I “stand in awe of the God of Israel” (Isaiah 29:23).
Today’s last reading speaks more about what will happen in “the last hour.” Those will increase who deny that Jesus is the Christ and who deny the Father. The defense against their influence is to abide in Christ, living with confidence that when He returns we will be like Him and we will see Him as He is! Lord, help me to live every day with this scene of Your second coming fresh in my mind! Amen. Come, Lord Jesus (Revelation 22:20)!
Have a blessed day, dear reader!
–Randy Sexton