Job 4:3-7 faith
Job 4:12-14 fear
Job 5:8-16 hope
Job 5:17-26 courage
= how?
Job 5:27 “hear it & know for yourself”
I am reminded that I am listening to the voices of fear, the expectation of ill winds, those familiar suggestions I’ve heard all my life that there is no foundation on which one can build because it can all be taken away in an instant.
Voices whispered so often that they appear as my own thoughts, voices that appear to originate in my experiences, but in fact exist only to render me troubled & weary, & useless for the cause.
I’m finding myself hoping, but scared to hope, confident that He is able, but not sure He would want to. I find myself afraid to hope. I find a heart trying to calm itself while a mind is uncertainly fighting with waves of words, washing over what might happen, what could be taken, what if, what if, what if..
I find myself troubled & weary.
I am reminded that I have heard the voices of fear for so long that their entrance into my mind escapes any filter or capture at this time, so much so that they are arriving so overwhelmingly, persistently in my face, that they are crowding out the voices of hope & confidence.
So that it is hard to hear the hope
So that it is hard to believe the confidence
But it is there!
I am reminded that there is a way to hear the hope, to be assured of the confidence, to calm the anxious heart. I am reminded that there is a place where those voices dare not speak – in God’s courts.
There is no force nor being that does not tremble at his anger or can stand up to his wrath (Jer 10:10).
There is no voice that can shout in the courtroom of heaven, it is the realm of quietness. It is in the court that commands are given. He causes.., He sends.., He releases (Jer 10:13). It is in the court that you are able to hear that still, small voice, the voice that reminds you
-that hope exists
-that faith has worked & will work
-that there is reason for confidence & it is not you.
I am reminded that it is where His words are being read that He sits as authority over all, where His people are washing their eyes over His words, & forming them on the tongues of their minds. That He is LORD over all there is no doubt (Jer 10:10), but that He is the only true God in the court of your life (Job 9:14-19) where the words you hear yourself speak are the highest authority in your life, can only be seen when you realise that the court is His court, & the words to create that place lie in the pages of His book.
You will be able to hear the voice of reason when you read the words He speaks. It may not the words themselves that inspire, but it is in the reading of the words that you declare yourself to be listening to One voice. The words may not even make sense, in the context of your life, but the words are words of power & authority in the ultimate Court of Law.
It may not be the words themselves that are inspiring the hope, the faith, the confidence – but it is the words being read that are stilling the accusing voices that are filling you with doubt & fear, because there is no voice that is able to speak when God is speaking.
So read His words. Form the words on the tongue of your mind so often that they find themselves embedded in your memory, ready to trickle out & fill your world of maddening, clamouring voices with stillness, so that you can hear One voice of assurance:-
-of hope that does exist,
-of faith that has foundation,
-of confidence in which you will find strength.
I am reminded that what He has begun He will complete.
Another ramble from a traveller
