What Is Right

Reading: Job 34-37; 1 Corinthians 1-3 1 Then Elihu said: 2 “Listen to me, you wise men. Pay attention, you who have knowledge. 3 Job said, ‘The ear tests the words it hears just as the mouth distinguishes between foods.’ 4 So let us discern for ourselves what is right; let us learn together what is good. 5 For Job also said, ‘I am innocent, but God has taken away my rights. 6 I am innocent, but they call me a liar. My suffering is incurable, though I have not sinned.’ (Job 34:1-6 NLT) Job’s friends said a lot of things that were true. Job said a lot of things that were true. Then they all made judgments based on the true things they thought and said, but the conclusions they reached and the judgments they made weren’t always right. Job’s friends said that God blesses good people and brings judgment on wicked people, and in principle, that’s true. So they concluded Job must be wicked. Job’s present experience indicated that God wasn’t listening to his cries for help, so he concluded that God didn’t love him. All of them said things that were essentially true, but none of them reached the right conclusion because they didn’t see the whole picture. I want to be wise, but I want to be wise with the wisdom of God, not the wisdom of man. I want to be able to identify truths and observe actions and consequences and then form those observations into principles – the way the Book of Proverbs does. But I want to be aware of the bigger picture, an awareness that comes only by God’s Spirit, so that in wrestling with realities and truths in my own life and in the lives of others, I don’t make wrong judgments. I want to discern what is right and learn what is good! Friends, will you join me in earnest prayer that we’ll learn only the lessons God is teaching and open the eyes of our hearts to see things from his big-picture perspective? Prayer: Father, Please help me not to learn lessons that you’re not teaching. Give me both wisdom and understanding. Help me to blend observation and insight, reason and revelation, grace and truth. Help me to see enough of the big picture to get perspective before I make judgments and pronouncements. Please. For Jesus’ sake and for others’ sake. Amen.