If The World Was For Sale Pt 3

 

As we talked about before...we can do nothing to save ourselves. No good deeds or good behaviors, nor ceasing of bad ones can save us. Eternal life in heaven is not only too expensive for us to ever be able do anything to warrant it, BUT it has also already been paid for by God Himself.

 

 

So, again, from what we talked about before, what does God want from us now that we are completely accepted by Him? If we cannot add one ounce to our salvation...then what does God want?

 

 

God says that He disciplines those He loves. Like a good parent, He wants the best for us and therefore wants us to keep learning and growing...and even to the point where he will allow us to come to the end of ourselves if we are so bull-headed that we won't learn any other way.  

 

Job was a man that did everything right...his behavior was impeccable. Yet God needed to get down into his heart and show him that being perfectly good is not the be all, and end all.  Job thought that he had attained...but God wanted to show him that as he preached right living, that the world and all it's inhabitants were passing him by.

Yes, because his knowledge of the law and his outward behaviors were perfect he felt as though he had attained, yet he knew very little about the life around him. God said to him in Job 38, "Where were you when I created the earth? Tell me since you know so much! Who decided on it's size? Certainly you would know that! And have you ever ordered the Morning, "Get up!", or told Dawn, "Get to work!"?

 

 

Earlier in Job 35, Elihu spoke to Job about relying on his impeccable behaviors, "Look up in the sky and see the clouds high above you. If you sin what do you accomplish against Him? If you never sin and are always good, is this some great gift to Him? What can you possibly give Him? "

Then God goes on to say to Job, that many people don't whine and complain about where God is when they are suffering...so, why is he?

 

Maybe he is whining because he thinks he's someone that does not deserve it....as compared to others? 

 

Even tho the peoples sins and how they were living were where Job's focus had always been...God's focus is always on the heart 1st. Therefore it is Job's heart that God is concerned about, and where his heart is towards all those hurting people...and not about how much better his behavior is than theirs. God is more interested in our heart condition then our exterior condition. What good is it if we are doing all the 'right' things on the outside, but still have a heart not softened and given completely over to God on the inside?

 

Psalm 51:17
The sacrifice pleasing to God is a broken spirit. God, You will not despise a broken and humbled heart.

 

Joel 2:13  Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

Finally, in Chap. 42, Job sees that as he lived and preached righteousness, that he was missing life and overlooking people...and was thinking that he was doing something extraordinary for God by being so good and doing all the 'right' things.

God is after our heart 1st and foremost. More then anything, that we see beyond our own nose...that we love as He commanded. Then our behaviors in time will begin to come in line with what love does and doesn't do ~ and then we are changed. God's love is powerful and begins changing both the lover and the lovee.