BE HONEST WITH GOD!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

WEDNESDAY MARCH 22, 2023.

SUBJECT: BE HONEST WITH GOD!

Memory verse: "O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; everyone mocks me." (Jeremiah 20 vs 7.)

READ: Job 7 vs 17 - 21; 42 vs 7 - 8:

7:17: “What is man, that You should exalt Him, that You should set Your heart on Him,

7:18: that You should visit him every morning, and test him every moment?

7:19: How long? Will you not look away from me, and let me alone till I swallow my saliva?

7:20: Have I sinned? What have I done to You, O watcher of men? Why have You set me as Your target, so that I am a burden to myself?

7:21: Why then do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity? For now I will lie down in the dust, and You will seek me diligently, but I will no longer be.”

42:7: And so 

INTIMATION:

The first building block of a deeper friendship with God is complete honesty about your faults and your feelings. God knows we are imperfect, and is not expecting us to be perfect, but He does insist on complete honesty. The Bible remarks in Psalm 130 vs 3, "If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?" None of God's friends in the Bible was perfect. If perfection was a requirement for friendship with God, we would never be able to be His friends. Fortunately, because of God's grace, Jesus is still the "friends of sinners." (Matthew 11 vs 19.) 

In the Bible, the known friends of God were honest about their feelings, often complaining, second-guessing, accusing, and arguing with their Creator. God, however, didn't seem to be bothered by this frankness; In fact, He encouraged it. God allowed Abraham to question and challenge Him over the destruction of the city of Sodom. Abraham pestered God over what it would take to spare the city, negotiating God down from fifty righteous people to only ten. If he had continued till one, God would have granted his request because a soul is valued more than the whole world. (Mark 8 vs 36.)

Our God is very patient. God did not slay Jeremiah when he claimed that God had tricked him (Jeremiah 20 vs 7 - 8). God listened patiently to David's many accusations of unfairness, betrayal, and abandonment as enumerated in his Psalms. In the passage we read today, God also listened to Job, and allowed him to vent his bitterness during his ordeal. Job referred to God as a watcher or observer of humanity. He was expressing his feeling that God seemed like an enemy to him—someone who mercilessly watched him squirm in his misery. However, in the end, God defended Job for being honest, and He rebuked Job's friends for being inauthentic. 

God told them, "..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. Now therefore, take for yourselves seven bulls and seven rams, go to My servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; My servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept him, lest I deal with you according to your folly; because you have not spoken of Me what is right, as My servant Job has." (Job 42 vs 7 - 8.) We should know that God is watchful over everything that happens to us. We must never forget that He sees us with compassion, not merely with critical scrutiny. He eyes are eyes of love.

To instruct us in candid honesty God gave us the Book of Psalms—a worship manual, full of ranting, raving, doubts, fears, resentments, and deep passions combined with thanksgiving, praise, and statement of faith. Every possible emotion is catalogued in Psalms. When you read the emotional confessions of David and others, realize this is how God wants you to worship Him; holding back nothing of what you feel. You can pray like David: "I pour out my complaints before Him; I declare before Him my troubles. When my spirit was overwhelmed within me...." (Psalm 142 vs 2 - 3.)

In one startling example of frank friendship in the Scripture (Exodus 33 vs 1 - 17), God honestly expressed His total disgust with Israel's disobedience. He told Moses he would keep His promise to give the Israelites the Promised Land, but He wasn't going one step farther with them in the desert! God was fed up, and He let Moses know exactly how He felt. Moses speaking as a "friend" of God, responded with equal openness: "If Your presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate. Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth." So the Lord said to Moses, "I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name."

Moses was bold and candid with God. He felt God gave him a task, and should back Him up appropriately. He was quite frank. This is the honesty that friendship God desires from us. Can God handle that kind of frank, intense honesty from you? Genuine friendship is built on disclosure. What may appear as audacity God views as authenticity. God listens to the passionate words of His friends; He is bored with predictable, pious cliches. To be God's friend, you must be honest to God sharing your true feeling, not what you think you ought to feel or say.

It is encouraging to know that all of God's closest friends—Moses, David, Abraham, Job, and others—had bouts with doubt. But instead of masking their misgivings with pious cliches (attitude I call "holier than thou"), they candidly voiced them openly and publicly. Expressing doubt is sometimes the first step toward the next level of intimacy with God.

Prayer: Abba Father, I will lay bare myself before You, for You already know my thoughts before I speak them. Nothing is hidden from You, I pray for grace to come to You all the time in complete honesty, in Jesus’ Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!