Passage Read: Job 33-36 Meditation Verses: 33:29-30 Thought Elihu believes he can explain to Job exactly what is going on, and where Job is wrong. He believes he can do so better than Job's three friends, men older and wiser than him, who failed to bring Job to repentance. His argument is that God warns men all the time of their sin and need for repentance. Perhaps in a dream or in a quiet voice in the heart or through trial and suffering. So the terrible things that have happened to Job are obviously God's way of telling him he needs to repent.

Passage Read: Job 29-32 Meditation Verse: 31:23 Thought The fear of God was so great and so real to Job, that's what kept him from doing evil of any sort. He dreaded the destruction God could bring, and the ultimate destruction of eternal torment. He knew enough of the splendor of God that He feared to rouse the Lord against himself. The greatness and glory of God struck Job with fear and dread that kept him from doing evil and drove him to do what was right.

Passage Read: Job 25-28 Meditation Verses: 27:2-6 Thought Job understands that the fear of the Lord is wisdom and shunning evil is understanding. He understands that better than most. What many pay lip service to, Job has lived out. Such that he declares here that he will never admit he has sinned, as his friends accuse. He will never lie, even if he thought it would turn the hand of God away from him. He has done everything right, to the best of his understanding of what God desires. He has feared the Lord and shunned evil.

Passage Read: Job 21-24 Meditation Verse: 24:1 Thought This is a good question. If God had regular days of holding court and hearing cases, the world would be a different place. The wicked would be regularly rebuked, punished, perhaps even destroyed. Who would dare to do wrong? It even causes me a bit of fear to think about such a thing. Would I go unpunished?

Passage Read: Job 17-20 Meditation Verses: 19:28-29 Thought Perhaps in many cases, the root of trouble that comes upon us is our own sin. Of course, if we believe that evil only befalls the wicked, then there is no reason to think otherwise! And if we believe that men cannot stop sinning, then there is always cause to look within for the reason for suffering. But what if the reason for a man's suffering is his righteousness? What if things have gone sideways in his life because Satan has received permission to sift him like wheat and see how he fares?

Last week we talked about the importance of being honest, transparent, and speaking even painful truths to those around us. Yet do so out of love and humility, for our own benefit and for the benefit of those with whom we speak. Paul’s next command is not necessarily directly related, though really all these commands are connected. They are all expressions of love for one another and for Jesus Christ. Today we’re going to learn about anger, both as an aid to honesty and as a danger to ourselves and others. From Ephesians 4:26-27.

We know from this chapter that God intends for us to grow into maturity in Christ. We have been made new, according to the likeness of Jesus Christ, but as we talked about last week, we need to work on learning these new ways and putting them into practice. We need to put off the old self and put on the new. We saw at the beginning of this chapter that the foundation of the Christian life is humility. Next up would be honesty, transparency. We have everything we need for life and godliness, and that includes our brothers and sisters in Christ. But if we aren’t going to be honest with them, transparent, then we will not be able to help them grow and they will not be able to help us grow in maturity. Without honesty, there is no meaningful fellowship as believers. And without humility, there is no meaningful honesty. So let’s spend a few minutes talking about that. From Ephesians 4:25.

In Ephesians so far we have seen the amazing love and kindness of God toward us. We are not the same people we were before we heard and believed the Gospel, and we have so many more wonderful things to look forward to than we could ever find in this life. We are a privileged people, chosen and saved and eternally blessed by the Lord. But we were made new in order to walk in the good works which God prepared in advance for us. Our gratitude should overflow in a humility that is eager to learn the ways of God. And God has given us five kinds of trainers to grow us all into His likeness. But the greatest hindrance to knowing and walking in this new life does not come from outside us, but as the saying goes, “We are our own worst enemy.” From Ephesians 4:17-24.