I think I was bit by a snake on Saturday. I know you’re probably thinking, how in the world would you NOT know for certain, but it all happened so fast & in hindsight, was probably quite comical to watch.
I was walking with my friend in a nature preserve when I felt a sudden sting on my leg. I didn’t have the courage to look down, so I kicked my leg to kingdom come & felt something wrap around it. I jumped up & down like a crazy person while Suzanne looked at me like I had two heads
As I read Job’s diatribe with his friends this morning, I could kinda relate. I think he’s a verbal processor like me because he lays his heart bare about the whole lotta hard that fell upon him.
At one point he says, “I KNOW all this {how good God is} is true in principle but...who dares ask God, ‘What are You doing?’ Who am I to try to even reason with Him?”
If “sheesh” was a word then, I think it would have appeared before 9:18 “Sheesh, He will not let me catch my breath.”
Psalm 38 tells of a similar season in David’s life. He too cries out to God in his dark hour & lands in a place where he proclaims: “But I am deaf to all their threats. I am silent as one who cannot speak. I choose to hear nothing & make no reply.”
Why?
“For I am waiting for you, O Lord.”
Both men were in a place of suffering. One claimed innocence & the other confessed sins. Regardless of the why, they both refused to sin in what they said.
They maybe didn’t understand the why behind the hard, but they didn’t give airtime to the enemy.
David processed with his Papa, Job with his friends- both proclaimed God’s goodness even when they couldn’t see the good.
When the enemy tries to tempt our hearts to self-pity or bitter anger with things God allows, we can choose to give airtime to the enemy or, like David, become deaf to his paltry threats, remain silent & make no reply.
What does this have to do with the stinkin snakebite? I was tempted to become “grrrr with God”, but had a choice. I could give complaining airtime to the hard & honor the enemy or praise my Papa & proclaim His goodness. One leaves my heart bitter & the other leaves it better. I choose better, how about you?
August 23 One Year Bible Readings
Job 8:1-11:20
1 Corinthians 15:1-28
Psalm 38:1-22
Proverbs 21:28-29
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