break me, make me believe ...

God’s Word is truly living and active (Hebrews 4:12). I love how the same scriptures can speak to us in completely different ways at different times. As someone who frequently struggled with depression during my teenage years, I found solace in the words of Job. It's so interesting reading it from a new perspective now ...

As the book begins, God Himself describes Job as “the finest man in all the earth. He is blameless—a man of complete integrity. He fears God and stays away from evil.” How’d you like a recommendation like that for your resume?! It seems that Job has everything he could ever want or need. But God knew that there was something missing. After Job endures and repeatedly refutes the so-called advice of his co-called friends, God finally speaks and Job is humbled: “I was talking about things I knew nothing about, things far too wonderful for me … I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.”

What more could we ask for than that? We can have all that the world values—family, friends, homes, possessions—but if we have not seen God, and been truly humbled by His power, then we have nothing. Satan argues that because God has “always put a wall of protection around [Job] and his home and his property” and “made him prosper in everything he does,” that “Job has good reason to fear God.”

As I’m writing this, I realize that these lyrics from Fireflight’s “All I Need to Be” are playing in the background:
Take me beyond what I can see
Break me, make me believe
That you have made me all I need to be
Knowing all that I can do is be open
When You start to move in my heart
And now, my God, I finally hear Your voice

That’s it exactly. God thought so highly of Job that He was willing to take away everything—to break him so that he would TRULY believe, TRULY see, TRULY hear—so He could take him to the next level. At the beginning of the book, Job’s children spend all their time celebrating with one another, and Job spends all his time interceding on their behalf. By the end of the book, Job is no longer inwardly focused on all that God has given him. He must pray on behalf of his friends—the ones that spoke so judgmentally against him—so that they will not receive the judgment that they deserve from God. It is then, and only then, that “the Lord restored his fortunes.” It is only when Job opens up his home to his brothers, sisters, and former friends that he can be consoled and comforted, and only then that “the Lord blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning.”

Taking this one step further, Isaiah 58 tells us that the kind of fast [self-denial] that God desires is to loose the chains of injustice, untie the cords and break every yoke, set the oppressed free, feed the hungry, provide shelter, clothe the naked, and not turn away your own flesh and blood. It is then, and only then, that “Your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard.” Oftentimes we feel like we need to get our act together before we are able to serve. But this tells us that it is only through serving that God will bring about the deliverance we have so desperately been seeking. It is only when we act as His ambassadors to others (whatever that might look like for you) that He can be everything that we need Him to be for us.

So, if you feel that your wall of protection has been removed, instead of getting mad and cursing God, start by asking why (it IS okay to ask God that)—not because you deserve it or are being punished, as Job’s friends suggested, but because God desires to be your everything and to take you to deeper levels of intimacy with Him … and all you can do is be open, when He starts to move in your heart.

Oh, and you know how I started out by saying that God’s Word is living and active? Well, I have seen the power of that statement yet again … as God revealed deeper truths about the highlighted passages, this entry became so much more than my original thoughts. How often have I not written because I wasn’t exactly sure what I was going to write? Don’t let uncertainty hold you back from your calling. Just start walking in the right direction and God will fill in the gaps!