{"id":21260,"date":"2017-01-12T00:10:40","date_gmt":"2017-01-12T08:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=9861"},"modified":"2017-01-12T00:10:40","modified_gmt":"2017-01-12T08:10:40","slug":"january-12-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/01\/12\/january-12-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"January 12, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cThere was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil.\u201d<\/em> Job 1:1<\/span><\/p>\n

Cultivating Awe and Reverence for God, Day 12<\/span><\/em><\/h3>\n

Shaddai\u2014the Almighty<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

It was the careful reading of the Book of Job that first began to cultivate a majestic awe of God in my heart. I was struck dumb by His revelation of Himself to Job. He suddenly wasn\u2019t a heavenly Santa Claus, the Man in the Sky, or the Guy Upstairs. He even moved beyond Father, Healer, or Provider.<\/span><\/p>\n

In my mind and heart, He moved into a high and exalted position, far above all else, sovereign over all things. The name \u201cI Am\u201d took on meaning for the first time\u2014and I hope I will never again diminish that Name by tacking on phrases like \u201cI Am whatever you need\u2026\u201d He was, and is, and will be, I Am.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the Book of Job, we see a man who feared God\u2014in other words, he had appropriate awe and reverence for God. God entices Satan, which at first glance seems rather mean to Job; we soon find that God would be glorified as the men were compelled to go to their knees before Him at His revelation of Himself.<\/span><\/p>\n

Legitimate questions were asked of God, and a lot of improper interpretations of God\u2019s Words and ways were thrown around in conversation. None of it got anyone anywhere, no problems were solved, no pain was lifted, no questions were answered. We aren\u2019t told what God was thinking throughout all this\u2014until the end of the book, when we find that God viewed these men as know-nothings, talking about things they did not understand, things way above them, beyond their comprehension.<\/span><\/p>\n

Job was suffering terribly. His so-called friends condemned him for what they thought surely must have been extreme, hidden sin in his life\u2014perhaps even blasphemy. In spite of occasional truths being spoken, all the conclusions drawn by all the players in this drama were completely wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

God stepped in, revealing His omnipotence and sovereignty in every word. He began to tell them the things He did that no one else can do. He didn\u2019t answer their questions. He didn\u2019t tell why Job was suffering. He didn\u2019t explain that the whole ordeal was about Him proving to Satan that Job had integrity and faith in Him even when life was dark and depressing.<\/span><\/p>\n

The revelation of God to Job was might and power, wisdom and strength, knowledge and understanding, creativity and majesty. Reading it, one finally understands that no one is like God, and no one can do what He does. God has no peers.<\/span><\/p>\n

Once he sees the truth, Job can\u2019t repent fast enough. Compared to God, he is scum, a worm, dust, unworthy, and foolish. \u201cI know that You can do everything, and that no purpose of Yours can be withheld from You\u2026 I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know\u2026I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You\u201d<\/em> (Job 42:2-5).<\/span><\/p>\n

This was me after reading Job. I\u2019d heard of God. In fact, I served God. I walked with God. I prayed to God, and gave to God, and read about God.<\/span><\/p>\n

But I had not seen God\u2014I had not seen His own revelation of Himself. His Spirit had not yet revealed Him in His fullness to me. When He did, I\u2014like Job\u2014despised myself and repented in dust and ashes. It startled me to realize that in His Word, God Almighty was actually telling me things about Himself. When you read the Book of Job with the mindset that God wants you to know Him, you will experience new awe and reverence for Him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFather, thank You for Your powerful revelation of Yourself, that we might know You. Amen.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cThere was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-5wU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21260\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}