SMILE BIG

Job had it rough. He was a righteous man and when all the devestation in his life came upon him he worshiped God - then was mad at God. Hear what he says: "I loathe my very life; therefore I will give free rein to my complaint and speak out in the bitterness of my soul. I will say to God: Do not condemn me, but tell me what charges you have against me. Does it please you to oppress me, to spurn the work of your hands, while you smile on the schemes of the wicked? Do you have eyes of flesh? Are your days like those of a mortal or your years like those of a man, that you must search out my faults and probe after my sin - through you know that I am not guilty and that no one can rescue me from your hand."

I cannot even begin to imagine the suffering Job was in. Yet here we have Job in a way saying, "God, I thought I was a righteous man - what in the world did I do to deserve this kind of punishment from you?" His bitterness and complaining are taking over. Sound familiar? We have all been at this point at sometime in our life. But here what his friend Zophar has to say to him: "You say to God, 'My beliefs are flawless and I am pure in your sight.' Oh, how I wish that God would speak that he would open his lips against you and disclose to you the secrets of wisdom, for true wisdom has two sides...Yet if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him,...then you will lift up your face without shame; you will stand firm and without fear. You will surely forget your trouble, recalling it only as waters gone by."

We need God to search our hearts every day. When trials come in life, which they will, how will we react? Will we talk back to God as Job did? Or will we humble ourselves and seek his face and repent. God wants us to do this every day, not just when trials come. Sometimes I think that we are afraid to allow God to search our hearts because we don't like what is there. Mostly this is because we are ashamed of our sin. Go figure - sin does bring shame - but it cannot stop there. I will say that again - it cannot stop there. Here what Job's friend continues to say to him: "Life will be brighter than noonday, and darkness will become like morning. You will be secure, because there is hope." When we allow God to search our hearts he will find sin there but we can lay this before him without shame because the blood of Christ has made us holy. Think about this, really think about this, the blood of Christ has made you holy and pure. We can look at how pitiful we can be, how we don't trust God in our trials, how we even blame God but when we put our hope and trust in the Lord even in the midst of our trials he will lift us up.

I do want God to search through my heart. For me it is a conscious decision that I must make. I think that it's not too hard for any of us to hold back with God. We give him part of our heart but the ugly part we try not to let him see, even though we know he sees it anyway. It's really lame when you think about it. Like I said the other day, "Jesus isn't mad at you, he is madly in love with you." When we claim the truth that we are loved by Jesus no matter what we have done, that it is a unconditional love, our whole life will change. We will be secure.

The following song was sung at Emily and Jon's wedding. Listen closely - this is how much you are loved - pour your heart out to Jesus. Empty yourself to him - let him totally in your heart. Hold nothing back - he loves you so beautifully despite your sin. That is just so amazingly great! We are beautiful - SMILE BIG!