Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more.” – Job 7:21

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 18, 2012): Job 7

It is the common misconception of Christianity – that belief in God results in an easy life. If we follow God, then we think that our existence will follow an easy path. And when things go wrong in our lives – when we lose that job or our health begins to fail – we think that these things are happening because we have somehow failed God. It is really what we could call “easy beliefism” – the idea that belief is superficial and that it results in an easier life. But that isn’t what God requires of us. God wants all of our beings. He wants, requires, our total surrender. And total surrender historically has meant a life filled with joy, but also a life filled with trials.

Part of the basic message of the book of Job is summed up in this passage – or rather it is the antithesis of this thought. Just because things were not going well for Job didn’t mean that God had refused to listen to Job, or that his offenses and sins had not been forgiven. The trouble that Job was in did not reflect his spiritual reality. And it doesn’t reflect our either.

The promise that God has made us is that our sins will be forgiven – in fact our sins are separated from us as to the farthest or deepest place that we can imagine. We are forgiven, even when we don’t feel forgiven. And sometimes we don’t feel forgiven because we struggle imagining a forgiveness so vast that it would include us.

It is Sunday, the day that we gather for worship. And whatever has happened this week, no matter what the trials are that you have walked through this week, that reality doesn’t sum up your spiritual certainty. God is doing a good work in you. And it is him that we have come to worship.

  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 8


The Sermon "The Price of Following - The Call to Christ" is now available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find it here. http://www.vantagepointcc.org/The_Price_of_Following___The_Call_to_Christ.htm