Today's encouragement comes from Job 40:8b, where we read these words:
" . . . Would you [Job] condemn Me [God] that you may be justified?"Fallen sinners, outside of Christ, always do exactly what we read here (above). They "condemn" God in all kinds of ways, in order to seek to "justify” themselves—pompously arrogating to themselves some sort of (usually “so-cial”) “righteousness." Of course, God understood Job's heart, and the Lord knew, that in fact, Job really *did* find his justification in Christ alone, and not in himself. (See Job 19:25-27 as evidence of this.)
All professing Christians should beware of the fact that whenever we are un-comfortable or inconvenienced—our temptation, just as it was with Job, is to "condemn" God, and to "justify” ourselves, (usually siding with the world, against God). Let us rather see things as they really *are*, in Christ; and re-cognize that the Lord is always right, just, holy, gracious, merciful, and loving.
[Puritan quote of the day: "Only man is in love with his own misery, and fights for those lusts that fight against his soul.” —Richard Sibbes, in, "The Soul's Conflict with Itself"]
