Devoted to God
1 1-3 Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion. He had seven sons and three daughters. He was also very wealthy—seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants—the most influential man in all the East!
4-5 His sons used to take turns hosting parties in their homes, always inviting their three sisters to join them in their merrymaking. When the parties were over, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children, thinking, “Maybe one of them sinned by defying God inwardly.” Job made a habit of this sacrificial atonement, just in case they’d sinned.
6-7 One day when the angels came to report to God, Satan, who was the Designated Accuser, came along with them. God singled out Satan and said, “What have you been up to?”
Satan answered God, “Going here and there, checking things out on earth.”
8 God said to Satan, “Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil.”
9-10 Satan retorted, “So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart? Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does—he can’t lose! Job 1:1-10 (MSG)
The portion of these verses that jumped out at me was, “You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does—he can’t lose!”
I have mentioned it several times in many posts, but if you missed it, let me do it again. When a man is devoted to God and living for Him, typically, he has a good life. God blesses him, and even when something may try to defeat him, God comes through and takes care of the issue for him.
April has a friend who announced last week that they are getting married. I only heard a part of the conversation while I was working on our house. But as I was listening, I started getting a bad feeling in my spirit. It was the gift of “discernment,” telling me that their fiancé was not the right person for them.
Today, April shared with me more about what she heard from another friend about their friend’s fiancé. Can you say, “Red Flags?” It’s sad that the friend would “settle” for Satan’s substitute rather than wait for the person that God has for them. If this friend would commit all their ways to God and delight themselves in Him, I would dare say that God would bring the right person into their life soon, knowing the desires of their heart. If they get married, they are setting themselves up for a lot of pain and heartache.
One can never go wrong living for God. Putting Him first in your life and asking Him to lead you and guide you. He will. I know because His word is full of scriptures that say he will.
Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself also in the LORD, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”
True delight in Him causes us to take our sights off of what we want in order to long for what He desires. The command to delight in God appears amidst this list that King David penned in the Psalms as the antidote for his fretting people:
- Know the fate of evildoers (Psalm 37:2)
- Trust in the Lord (37:3)
- Do good (37:3)
- Befriend faithfulness (37:3)
- Delight yourself in the LORD (37:4)
- Commit your way to Him (37:5)
- Rest in, and wait patiently for, The Lord (37:7)
Source: http://www.biblestudytools.com
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