This was written by Job who had a really rough go of things for a long time. In fact, when he said this, it probably seemed that all he had left of his formerly lovely life was dust.
But the end of the story is that God restored to Job a new lovely life, and I think today’s verse explains why.
Job had faith.
He knew God, trusted God, and believed God when God claimed to be just and loving.
Even though all Job could see when he looked around was dust, He also believed God was at work as his eternal, omnipotent Redeemer.
When I look around my life, do I see God? Or do I just see the dust?
I live in a place where desert winds bring heaps of dust. It’s a real chore to clean up our patio over and over and over. I get really frustrated, and I forget to look up from the dust and see the beautiful mountains where the sun sets and the palm trees sway.
There is a lot of dust in this life, some days (years) more than others. But God is at work even so. He is loving, forgiving, patient, generous, holy, and beautiful. And He is very much alive. One day He will stand atop all the dust, but for now He is right in the midst with me.
Dear God,
I am sorry that my dread of the dust in my life has distracted me from all your beautiful gifts. I am so grateful for your generosity, wisdom, and patient love. Thank you for saving me and promising to one day remove all the dust. I trust you and refuse to be misled by the way my circumstances appear.
I’m currently reading The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell, a book that includes people who travel to a distant galaxy and encounter aliens. The language of the aliens has an interesting feature. Their words for something non-visual (like the wind, or God, or a mythical creature) are the same as for something that is not currently present but can normally be seen (like a friend who is away on a trip or an item in another room).
The reason I bring that up is because this kind of language might be helpful in referring to God. He is like a friend whom I just can’t see. Like the wind or the air, He is here but definitely non-visual to me. So it requires faith to believe He exists.
When a friend leaves the room, I can’t see her anymore. She is now non-visual, but I believe she continues to exist. I can please her by making her a cake to enjoy upon her return. I wouldn’t make her a cake if I didn’t believe she existed.
I can’t see God right now, but I can please Him by loving people. (He told me He would really enjoy that.) I wouldn’t bother trying to please Him if I didn’t believe He existed.
One day God will reveal Himself to me, and all who believe. We will be rewarded with visuals, with complete understanding of God. (See 1 Corinthians 13:12.) I really look forward to that day. And on that day I’d love to know I spent my non-visual days pleasing Him.
Dear God,
Thank you for your promise to reveal yourself to those who have faith during this non-visual time. I know you exist even though I can’t see you. I want to please you. Forgive me for my doubts and failures and dark moments when you seem far. Thank you for the ways you remind me of your existence in non-visual ways. Please continue to do so!
I’ve been shaken before. That is, disturbed or shocked by some event or circumstance in my life to the point that my confidence is diminished.
So if God allowed me to be shaken, does that mean I’m not righteous? Well, I’m definitely not righteous on my own, but through Jesus I am absolutely righteous.
So why did God allow me to be shaken?
Maybe it’s because I didn’t “cast my burden on the Lord.”
To “cast” means to “throw something forcefully in a specified direction.” So, I’m supposed to hurl my burden at God! Not hand over, not set down in front of, not toss to, not request it be removed when it’s convenient…. Throw. Forcefully. Right at God.
And He promises to catch my burden and deal with it for me.
If I’ve thrown my burden the way I’d throw a poisonous snake I found on my lap or a grenade about to go off, then I no longer have it. It is gone and far away from me. I don’t need to stress about being bitten or blown up anymore. God has caught and killed the snake or detonated the grenade out of harm’s way.
So why would I still be shaken?
The problem isn’t with God here. It’s with me. I don’t trust God to have caught my burden and dealt with it. Or maybe I never hurled it away in the first place. If I hang on to my problems and wring my hands and worry and just stare at them, they are going to shake me.
If I throw my burdens to God, trust Him to deal with them, and focus on moving forward, living obediently instead of obsessing over my burdens (that have been hurled away), I will not be shaken. I can live confidently in His strength.
Dear God,
Teach me how to throw my burdens to you with force and permanence. I don’t want them, and I know you can handle them. Forgive me for the times when I choose to try to deal with everything myself, with my own puny strength. Thank you for providing confidence and righteousness!
This seems counterintuitive. Like many principles in the Kingdom of God that Jesus described, it seems opposite of what experience, culture, and human nature tells me. He said things like the first shall be last, love your enemies, and it’s really hard for a wealthy person to get into heaven.
Generosity is one of those things. How can I have what I need if I give a generous portion of it away?
In the example of water, for example. I live in a hot and dry desert. A simple walk down the street can be a thirsty affair. Water is a precious commodity, especially when you lack it.
Imagine you are hiking in the remote scrubland, lugging enough water for your planned expedition, when you come across another hiker who hadn’t planned well and is out of water. They are relieved to see you. The sun is beating down without a cloud or a shade tree in sight. The thirsty hiker has another couple of miles to go before they reach the trailhead. Would you give them some of your water? A sip? Or would you give generously?
A sip wouldn’t require much sacrifice on your part so you might agree to that. But giving generously would require you to change your plans. You would have to cut your hike short to account for your diminished supply. Your whole day’s complexion is altered.
It’s at this point you have to decide whether you trust God.
God says if I give generously, I will be enriched.
God is very creative in the ways He chooses to enrich His generous givers. In the scenario above, He might suddenly send cool clouds to the situation after I share my water generously with the stranger, allowing me to continue my hike after all. Or maybe since I am forced to turn back, I end up hiking with the stranger and forge a valuable, lasting friendship. Or perhaps my car is dead when we return to the trailhead, and this stranger is able to give me a jump or a ride or make a call for me because my phone has no service. There is no telling how God plans to bless my generosity.
And if I only offered a measly sip, or nothing at all, I would never find out.
Dear God,
Thank you for your beautiful promise to reward generosity. What a wonderful world this kind of behavior could create! Your wisdom is sorefreshing and delightful. Teach me the joys of giving generously. I’m sorry when I fail because of selfishness or fear. I know I can trust you. Keep reminding me!
This is kind of how apologies work. You need both the belief and the confession.
Imagine I did something bad to you. I stole your sandwich from the break room and ate it. Or I lied about you to my friends. Or I poisoned your pet iguana.
If I tell you I’m sorry but don’t actually feel sorry because I don’t think I actually did anything wrong or was justified somehow, you won’t feel like forgiving me.
On the other hand, if I feel very remorseful about the whole thing, I can’t sleep or eat because I feel so bad, but I never apologize to you, you won’t forgive me then either. Why would you?
That’s like today’s verse. I am a sinner. My whole life has been and probably will continue to be (despite my best efforts) steeped in selfishness and fear, greed and pride, and all manner of behavior that is hideous to God.
If I tell Him I’m sorry and ask for His forgiveness but don’t actually feel sorry because I don’t understand how selfish I am or I feel justified in my behavior, He won’t forgive me. Or I f I call on His name but don’t actually believe He exists or is who He says He is, He won’t come to me and be my God.
Likewise, if I do believe I am a sinner in need of salvation, and I do believe God exists, loves me, and sent Jesus to die for me, but I never say so — to God or to anyone — He won’t forgive me.
I need to both believe and say that I believe. I need to understand my failure and ask for forgiveness. Only by doing both will I be forgiven, deemed righteous, and rewarded with salvation. Fortunately, these are both simple things.
Dear God,
I’m so grateful that salvation is so freely given and so easily acquired. Thank you for this beautiful gift. I believe you exist and that you are the loving Author and Creator of everything. I also understand how I fail to meet your expectations of love. I am sorry. I confess my sins and my belief today.
Today’s verse is about putting things in perspective.
Imagine that you are behind on your rent. I mean seriously late. You are worried about being evicted any minute. Then you hear a knock on your door. You start sweating, and your heart is racing as you answer. It’s your landlord.
But she’s smiling.
She sees your grim face and says, “Do you not know? Have you not heard?”
Puzzled, you ask what she’s talking about.
She says, “Your father bought this entire apartment building! He runs it now, and your rent is free!”
You would be so relieved.
Just as I should be relieved no matter what issue I’m facing here on earth. Why? Because God “bought the building.” He owns everything. He knows all the ins and outs and how it all fits together. He forgave my debt and made me free. He has a beautiful plan for my life, and He works tirelessly to make sure everything goes as planned. No matter what it looks or feels like today, I can rely on the all-knowing, everlasting God of love to work things out for my good in the end.
How can I be worried when I know God owns the building?
Dear God,
Thank you for allowing me to live freely in your beautiful creation. Forgive me for worrying and stressing about things when I know who you are and all you are capable of. Remind me to turn my problems over to you and trust in your infinite power, love, and understanding. Teach me how to focus on praising and obeying you instead of being distracted by my problems.
I’ve never had a bodyguard — never needed one, fortunately — but I’ve seen people with them on TV and heard about celebrities and politicians and sports stars needing them to keep fans and haters alike at bay. The US Secret Service is a whole law enforcement agency with a goal of protecting our government’s leaders and their families.
Bodyguards and Secret Service agents can be very effective, especially when their protectee is cooperative. It’s much easier to take a bullet for the vice president if she stays close to her agent.
In today’s verse I learn that God faithfully guards me from the evil one. He’s taking bullets for me left and right. But just like with bodyguards, it’s important for me to stay close to God. If I go wandering off, the evil one may find a way past my security detail. Not because God can’t manage, but because He still wants me to have a choice.
If I want to lose my bodyguard, I have that right. But I will be vulnerable. If I shake off God’s guidance, I will be vulnerable to the devil’s whispered lies and temptations from my own desires.
If I choose to stick close to God instead, returning to His word and to prayer constantly, He will faithfully and vigilantly protect me from any and all attacks.
Dear God,
Thank you so much for your promise of protection! Remind me to stay close to you. Show me when I am straying too far and forgive me. Teach me how to remain under your loving guard at all times.
What is a “living hope”? And how am I born into it? These are churchy words and dense concepts that make it hard to read the Bible. Some translations try to take out all the churchy words. I’ve found this to be helpful but not necessary if I spend a little time contemplating the words and reading the surrounding verses for context.
Even though today’s verse sounded complicated to me when I first read it, the meaning is actually quite simple. And it basically distills the whole point of the Bible: even though I don’t deserve it, God reached out (His great mercy) and offered me the gift of a new, clean and perfect life (the birth part). He did this by giving His son Jesus to be perfect for me and to die in my place. But Jesus conquered death so He’s alive and well (the living hope).
New birth into a living hope. If I accept God’s great mercy, I am reborn into a new life. I may look the same and my circumstances are probably exactly the same too. But internally I am different. My priorities are different, what I value has changed, how I intend to treat other people and why is all new. Where I look for guidance, comfort, and strength has been refocused on God. And over time, these internal changes will start affecting my external life as well. Maybe how I spend my time and who I spend it with shifts. Maybe my new integrity is noticed, and I get a better job. Or maybe I find more peace with my current job instead.
Just because I’ve been made new like this doesn’t mean I will be perfect. Jesus was perfect for me. I will unfortunately make many mistakes even in this new life where my priorities have adjusted. Things will still go wrong. Temptation still exists. This is why it’s important that my hope is living. Jesus is alive and ready to remind me again and again of how I’ve been forgiven, how much He loves me ,and that He’s here with me.
We humans forget good things so quickly and easily. We remember the bad for a very long time. If Jesus died and stayed dead, taking my sins with Him, I’d always wonder if He got them all. Maybe He missed a few…?
But He came back. He conquered death entirely and came back. He knew I’d need reassurance. Yes, He says. I got them all. Even the sins you will commit later today.
Dear God,
Thank you for being my living hope! Thank you for giving me a new life where I can stand in your holy presence without shame. I don’t deserve it, but I love it. Thank you for removing every last one of the mistakes I have made and have yet to make. I’m sorry for my failure to obey you and love others. Reveal my failures to me so I can hand them over to you for disposal.
This is very mysterious. It always has been mysterious to me. I grew up going to church and Sunday school, but a lot of Christianity and the Bible is perplexing to a young mind. (And even an old mind.)
The concept of the Trinity is one of those things. It doesn’t make sense because there is nothing like it in this world. I can’t relate to it or understand it or even imagine it very well.
As a child I could grasp the idea of God because I was very familiar with powerful authority figures. I knew parents and teachers, police officers and shop clerks. Pretty much any adult had more power than me and did things I couldn’t begin to understand. My dad built our house so I could understand very well the concept of a loving father creating a good place for me to live, like God creating the universe for His children.
But when they tried to explain the Trinity to me, I was lost. I had no experience with three-in-one people. My dad was separate from my teacher who was separate from my mom. How could God include Jesus and the Holy Spirit as one Being while being three separate Beings as well? The closest I could come was a person with a split personality or conjoined triplets or some kind of job-share situation perhaps. There’s just nothing like it in all of creation.
Well, I guess that’s kind of the point. God is unique and mysterious and incomprehensible. I can’t begin to understand Him fully. If I could, He wouldn’t be much of a God.
The point of today’s verse isn’t to boggle the mind though. Jesus was simply trying to comfort His disciples. He had been explaining that He was about to be executed, which is understandably disturbing. After all, they had spent years following Him. They had put all their hopes in Him. Now He was “going away”?!
So Jesus said, hey don’t worry, another part of me will come and hang around right in your heart and be with you all the time. That part of me will never go away. In fact, that part will stick around until I come back.
They were very confused. And they stayed confused until Pentecost when it happened — the part of the Trinity that Jesus promised arrived and filled each of them.
Fortunately, part of the Holy Spirit’s job was to teach and remind the disciples about everything Jesus said and meant during His ministry. The disciples stopped being confused and started worshipping and teaching and preaching and healing and writing. They continued the ministry Jesus began. They loved. The fear left them, replaced by confidence in God, and they started Christianity.
The good news is that the same Holy Spirit that filled the disciples at Pentecost will also fill any believer in Jesus today. Today’s verse is for me and you. I don’t have to understand the Trinity or any of God’s wondrous mysteries to have access to God’s love. I just have to believe and accept His gift.
Dear God,
You are a confounding and marvelous mystery to me. Thank you for explaining what I need to know in a way I can understand it through Jesus. Thank you for promising to come live with me, teaching me and reminding me of your word. Open my ears to hear your voice today.I look forward to the day when you explain it all to me, and I can see you face to face.
The Day of the Lord is a phrase used often in the Bible. Its meaning changes slightly with the context. It either refers to a time in the past or a time in the future. But in either case it is a dreadful, scary time when God decides to enforce His will. He’s done being patient with sin and evil.
In the past there was a Day of the Lord when God sent the plagues on Egypt to free His people from slavery. And when He sent the Babylonians to conquer Jerusalem and drag His rebellious people into captivity. God is slow to anger when evil is allowed to reign, but His patience does eventually run out.
Today’s verse is talking about the Day of the Lord that is yet to come which is often referred to as Judgement Day. When this time arrives, God will conquer evil once and for all and make all things new. Everything evil will be destroyed forever. Everything belonging to Him will be cleansed and set right, as He originally intended them to be.
The reason for Joel’s alarm is that the destruction that occurs during the Day of the Lord will be pervasive and horrifying. Evil has a very strong foothold in this world because we have allowed it to thrive. So the remedy won’t be gentle.
Imagine a house inundated with deadly black mold. The mold is in the drywall, the studs, the floor joists, the roof rafters and the plumbing. It cannot be cleaned. It must be torn down to the foundation and rebuilt. All the moldy material must be removed and destroyed. Anything valuable that is contaminated must be thoroughly sanitized if possible or it too must be destroyed.
I know I would rather be sanitized than destroyed on the Day of the Lord, but either way, it will be scary. Fortunately because of Jesus, my sanitization is possible. God promises that those who choose Him and accept His cleansing will be saved and will get to enjoy the perfect (mold- and evil-free) beauty of the new world He creates afterward.
Dear God,
Thank you for warning us about the upcoming Day of the Lord. I am so sorry for the evil I have allowed to thrive in my life and in the world around me. Please forgive me and cleanse me so that I can be saved when you clean house. Reveal the things in my life I need to change now. Give me the wisdom, strength, and courage to change them. And protect me during the Day of the Lord.
CamDevo 