Costly Worship (Chapter 4) (Monday in the second week of Lent)

PAUSE
As I enter prayer now, I pause to be still; to breathe slowly to recenter my scattered senses upon the presence of God.

(pause)
I pray Psalm 10: 1, repeating the words slowly, several times:
“Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?”

REFLECT
Bible: The biblical character Job is famous for his terrible, inexplicable suffering. Eventually, right at the end of his tragic story, when God finally speaks to Job, He says:”Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone – while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?” (Job 38: 4-7).

Book passage: [In these verses] God rolls back the clouds to unveil an awesome vision that, far from diminishing Job’s expectations of His power, renders him speechless. God’s answer to Job’s archetypal cry of “Why?” is simply, “Look at Me” (see Job 38-41). “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you,” cries Job in awe, as if his sufferings have simply evaporated (42:5). The book of Job is therefore both the most frustrating and enlightening treatment of unanswered prayer in the Bible, because God’s solution to so much misery is ultimately to reveal His greatness. (p. 47)

ASK
Ask myself: Why does God not answer Job’s actual questions? In what ways might God be wanting to re-frame my questions instead of answering them?

Ask the Lord: Sovereign God, I acknowledge that my life is very, very small while You are infinitely great and ultimately in control. I choose to focus on Your power instead of my problems today by spending a little time now in worship.

YIELD
The Hymn, “When I Survey,” by Charles Wesley:

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, Save in the death of Christ, my God. All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood.
Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were an off’ring far too small; Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all.

Amen