Are you teachable?
25 Jun 26
Today's devotional: taken from YouVersion, Devotions on F.I.R.E. Year One
Readings:
Job 4
Job 5
Job 6
Acts 7:20-43
Teach me, and I will hold my tongue; Cause me to understand wherein I have erred (Job 6:24).
Are you teachable?
Job seeks to know why the Almighty permits him to suffer. His so-called friends don’t illuminate him on this matter. God exposes the folly of their counsel with the following: “The LORD said to Eliphaz the Temanite, ‘My wrath is aroused against you and your two friends, for you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has'” (Job 42:7). The Book of Job culminates with God teaching His servant a valuable lesson. Job learns that it is better to understand who God is rather than why these things have happened. He displays a teachable spirit. He says, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You. Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6).
Employment Point: Seek God and remain teachable during a trial.
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Reflections
I believe there is no trial where we can’t learn anything. And in every trial, He is with us. We are not doing this alone, even when we felt we had hit rock bottom. The Lord is there. We were not forgotten by Him but likely we have forgotten Him.
“Your words have supported those who stumbled; you have strengthened faltering knees. But now trouble comes to you, and you are discouraged; it strikes you, and you are dismayed. Should not your piety be your confidence and your blameless ways your hope?”Job 4:4-6 NIV
- these words by Eliphaz the Temanite are not really encouraging in my own opinion. Maybe only the first sentence. We need to recognise that trouble comes and strikes every one of us. No one is spared. Which normal human being will not feel discouraged or dismayed when troubles come? The only difference is that the Lord has mercy. He allows us to lament to tell Him how we are feeling but we fall back on Him and His strength to overcome.
- I also do not agree that piety or blameless ways be our confidence and hope. All these fall in the hands of our Father. In Him is where we should find our confidence and hope
““Consider now: Who, being innocent, has ever perished? Where were the upright ever destroyed? As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it.”Job 4:7-8 NIV
- This sounded so wrong. There are so many righteous Christians that perished. It just made me think that Eliphaz did not make a justified statement of God.
““But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him.”Job 5:8 NIV
- this tone contains a tone of accusation or condemnation. Not helpful nor encouraging to one who is already suffering. Job did tell God how he felt. He was definitely upset by all that happened and I believe none of us may behave the way that he did. He told God he has no peace.. maybe for us we would have lost it instead of just saying it.
““But now be so kind as to look at me. Would I lie to your face? Relent, do not be unjust; reconsider, for my integrity is at stake. Is there any wickedness on my lips? Can my mouth not discern malice?”Job 6:28-30 NIV
- Job is angry but his tone is still one of those that are peace loving. He adores the Lord and never said anything that displeases Him.
- What are the things we say when we are angry? Whatever that was said cannot be taken back, it is like poured out water, unretrievable. So guard our tongues O Lord, teach us your ways and help us to exercise and learn self-control. May we not sin against You in our thoughts, words and deeds.
““But the man who was mistreating the other pushed Moses aside and said, ‘Who made you ruler and judge over us? Are you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?’”
Acts 7:27-28 NIV
- Things we thought nobody will know. Remember God knows all. There’s no place to hide from God, for He knows us by our hearts not where we are physically. He is in us as we are in Him.
“You have taken up the tabernacle of Molek and the star of your god Rephan, the idols you made to worship. Therefore I will send you into exile’ beyond Babylon.”Acts 7:43 NIV
- We need to know very clearly what we are carrying in the tabernacle that we chose to take up and believe. If we are worshipping the wrong god, only disaster will fall on us.
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Receiving Yourself in the Fires of Sorrow
BY OSWALD CHAMBERS
June 25
Now my soul is troubled, and what shall I say? “Father, save me from this hour”? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hour. — John 12:27
As a child of God, my attitude toward sorrow and difficulty shouldn’t be one of wishing they didn’t exist, nor of asking God to prevent them. I should be asking that, in every fire of sorrow, I receive the self God created me to be. Our Lord wasn’t saved from the hour, but out of it. He received himself in the fires of sorrow, fulfilling the purpose God had ordained for him.
We say that there shouldn’t be any sorrow, but there is sorrow. If we try to avoid it, if we refuse to take it into account, we are being foolish. Sorrow is one of the biggest facts of life; it’s no use saying that it shouldn’t exist. Sin and sorrow and suffering are. It isn’t for us to say that God has made a mistake in allowing them.
Sorrow burns up a great amount of our shallowness, but it doesn’t always make us better. Suffering either gives us to ourselves or destroys us. We can’t find ourselves in success; success makes us lose our heads. We can’t find ourselves in times of calm and monotony; they make us bored. The only way we can receive ourselves is in the fires of sorrow. This is true in both Scripture and human experience.
Have I received my self—the self God created me to be—in the fires of sorrow? It’s always easy to identify people who have. They are the people you know you can trust, the people you turn to in moments of trouble and find that they have plenty of time for you. Those who haven’t received themselves are likely to be irritated and contemptuous when you ask for their help; they have no time for you and your troubles. Only those who have received themselves are able to give with open hearts.
Receive yourself in the fires of sorrow, and God will make you nourishment for others.
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
We are all based on a conception of importance, either our own importance, or the importance of someone else; Jesus tells us to go and teach based on the revelation of His importance. “All power is given unto Me.… Go ye therefore ….”
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Reflections
Refiners fire-the fire that we all have to go through in order to grow. A man said, to pray for tribulations-in order to know God. My first thought was shock but I realised he is right. Because through our usual routine, the mountains in our life, we likely would not look for God. We are too comfortable. Only when we are forced to the bottom, out of ideas or even our strength, are we able to see God and sense God. Otherwise God seems to be just a foreign concept, someone far away. No! He is just beside you and me!
But what exactly does Oswald mean when he say the Fires of Sorrow? Following is my own interpretation of what I think he is saying.
Think of Fires of Sorrow as a rite of passage. A level of challenge that we have to pass in order to move up to the next level. However, like what usually happens in a game, there would be some who passed the level or some who just cannot make it through - game over. In life, this is something else for a child of God.
Sorrows are all part of a total equation as a living human being. We cannot avoid sorrows, pain, as much as we will also experience joy and laughters. Like what Oswald says, the Lord don't save us from those sorrows or sufferings but bring us out of it. It is through sorrows that we will experience growth. A life that has no excitement or sorrows will make us a really dull person.
The ones who get out of those sorrows will learn and understand sorrows. Just like how Jesus comes to the earth as fully man and understands all our pains and sufferings as man, will then be able to bring us out of it. We have our part to do to help ourselves by surrender to God and let Him lead us through.
Gold or silver will not shine if impurities are not removed and fire is needed to bring out those impurities. The metal needs to be hammered, burnt, cooled, heated on a continuous process to become a precious metal. So the same for men, that one who goes through those sorrows and sufferings through the Fires of Sorrows be refined by the Lord to be someone that was brought out of sorrows and bring encouragment to others too.
Let's pray:
Father, may You strengthen us and help us to surrender our will to You so that we learn Your ways and the solutions to sorrows and sufferings. Even through the refining of ourselves through the fire, Father may You sustain us and grant us mercies to go through the refining process. We recognise that this may be painful but we also recognise that this is only way to be purified. Bless us O Lord, and may Your grace shine on us always. In Jesus's most gracious name we pray. Amen. 🙏🏻
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