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| Previous Next Scripture tells of many prayers--urgent requests to God for help. In All Things Are Possible, author Daniel Partner tells of devotional meaning in seventy-five of these prayers. Partner's insightful, accessible readings show that no human problem is unique and that God hears believers' prayers. Not only can the answers be miraculous--prayer itself is a miracle. While reading All Things Are Possible, Christians will see their own struggles in the prayers of biblical characters, be encouraged to lift their voices to heaven like the saints of old, and embrace Jesus' promise: "All things are possible to him who believes" (Mark 9:23 NASB). This devotional employs various translations of Scripture. Soft cover from Barbour Publishing, Inc., copyright 2002 |
"DAY THIRTY-EIGHT"
Then Job answered the Lord,
and said, I know that thou canst
do every thing, and that no thought
can be withholden from thee.
Who is he that hideth counsel
without knowledge? Therefore
have I uttered that I understood not;
things too wonderful for me,
which I knew not.
Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak:
I will demand of thee, and declare thou
unto me. I have heard of thee by the
hearing of the ear.- but now mine eye
seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself,
and repent in dust and ashes.
- JOB 42:1-6
In the midst of their long conversation, Job's friend Elihu taught him this prayer: "For has anyone said to God, `I have endured punishment; I will not offend any more; teach me what I do not see"' (Job 34:31-32 NRSV). God answered this prayer and, through suffering and struggle, taught Job what he did not see. The book of Job tells of this man who has fallen into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31) and discovered that "our God is a consuming fire" (Hebrews 12:29). This culminates in job 42, when the anguished man prays, "I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 42:5-6).It is a mercy to be educated in the things of God by the instruction of the Bible and God's ministers. After all, "how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? ...So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Romans 10:14, 17). Job was a great man, and righteous, but he knew God only by the hearing of the ear. Such knowledge can truly change you. For example, the apostle Paul gave the teaching of the book of Romans to cause "the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God-what is good and acceptable and perfect" (Romans 12:2 NRSV). Job's understanding of God made him a blameless, God-fearing man who was upright and turned away from evil (Job 1:1 NRSV). It is through the hearing of the ear that God reveals his Son to us-faith comes by hearing. But the book of Job illustrates teaching by the rod of circumstances and the revelation of the engrafted word (James 1:21). This deeper teaching of God's Spirit reveals his Son in us (Galatians 1:16). Job declared, "Now mine eye seeth thee." This way of teaching is so profound and effective that we "are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Corinthians 3:18). Click here to send this devotion to a friend!
