Date: August 12, 2011
Topic: +DEV+ Repentant Prayers
Repentant Prayers
"Then Job replied to the Lord, 'I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted. My eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent.'" (JOB 42:2, 5-6)
Scripture Focus: Job 42
It was the Lord who allowed His faithful servant Job to be ravaged by hardship, yet we find Job repenting in the end.
Job's friends and wife were no help to him as his life fell apart. They suggested it must have been his sinfulness bringing on the apparent punishment. They encouraged Job to curse God altogether. Through many chapters' worth of contemplating, he tries to make sense of his tragedies. At last, he realizes that though trials yet to come may bring even worse pain, his Redeemer lives (19:25). While illness, the deaths of his children, and great financial losses plague him, he confidently proclaims that His Lord will stand in the end, even if he himself does not. Job repents because his questioning and challenging the Lord were wrong. His repentant prayer is heard just as surely as his despairing cries.
Likewise for you and me. The Lord is grieved by sin. But that grief didn't go unanswered. Just as He restored Job to twice the riches in the end, so He has restored us, with exponentially great riches in Christ.
Insight: When a friend's advice is not pointing you to the Lord and his grace, go find your gracious redeemer through prayer and the word.
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