Job 6 , Bible Reading and Daily Devotionals

Max Lucado Daily: THE POSTURE OF PRAYER - May 31, 2021

We have the opportunity to offer heartfelt prayers for every person we see: the attendant at the grocery store, the nurse in the doctor’s office. You don’t have to tell them of your intercessory prayer. When we seek to bless others through prayer, we are blessed. Studies draw causal links between prayer and faith and health and happiness. The act of praying for others has a boomerang effect. It allows us to shift the burden we carry for others to the shoulders of God.

Don’t grow angry at the church’s condition, pray for her. Don’t fret about the future of your family, pray for them. Assume the posture of prayer. Is there a crisis in your world? Are you called to give hope where hope cannot be found? Is prayer all that you have? That’s okay—prayer is all you need. This is how happiness happens.

Job 6

Job Replies to Eliphaz
God Has Dumped the Works on Me

Job answered:

“If my misery could be weighed,
    if you could pile the whole bitter load on the scales,
It would be heavier than all the sand of the sea!
    Is it any wonder that I’m howling like a caged cat?
The arrows of God Almighty are in me,
    poison arrows—and I’m poisoned all through!
    God has dumped the whole works on me.
Donkeys bray and cows moo when they run out of pasture—
    so don’t expect me to keep quiet in this.
Do you see what God has dished out for me?
    It’s enough to turn anyone’s stomach!
Everything in me is repulsed by it—
    it makes me sick.

Pressed Past the Limits
8-13 “All I want is an answer to one prayer,
    a last request to be honored:
Let God step on me—squash me like a bug,
    and be done with me for good.
I’d at least have the satisfaction
    of not having blasphemed the Holy God,
    before being pressed past the limits.
Where’s the strength to keep my hopes up?
    What future do I have to keep me going?
Do you think I have nerves of steel?
    Do you think I’m made of iron?
Do you think I can pull myself up by my bootstraps?
    Why, I don’t even have any boots!

My So-Called Friends
14-23 “When desperate people give up on God Almighty,
    their friends, at least, should stick with them.
But my brothers are fickle as a gulch in the desert—
    one day they’re gushing with water
From melting ice and snow
    cascading out of the mountains,
But by midsummer they’re dry,
    gullies baked dry in the sun.
Travelers who spot them and go out of their way for a drink
    end up in a waterless gulch and die of thirst.
Merchant caravans from Tema see them and expect water,
    tourists from Sheba hope for a cool drink.
They arrive so confident—but what a disappointment!
    They get there, and their faces fall!
And you, my so-called friends, are no better—
        there’s nothing to you!
    One look at a hard scene and you shrink in fear.
It’s not as though I asked you for anything—
    I didn’t ask you for one red cent—
Nor did I beg you to go out on a limb for me.
    So why all this dodging and shuffling?

24-27 “Confront me with the truth and I’ll shut up,
    show me where I’ve gone off the track.
Honest words never hurt anyone,
    but what’s the point of all this pious bluster?
You pretend to tell me what’s wrong with my life,
    but treat my words of anguish as so much hot air.
Are people mere things to you?
    Are friends just items of profit and loss?

28-30 “Look me in the eyes!
    Do you think I’d lie to your face?
Think it over—no double-talk!
    Think carefully—my integrity is on the line!
Can you detect anything false in what I say?
    Don’t you trust me to discern good from evil?”

Our Daily Bread reading and devotion    
Monday, May 31, 2021
Read: Matthew 6:1–4

Giving to the Needy

“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

INSIGHT
Having dealt with the burdensome teachings of the Pharisees (Matthew 5:21–48), Jesus now deals with their hypocritical piety. He discusses three acts of piety common in all religions that were meticulously observed by every devout Jew—almsgiving, prayer, and fasting (6:1–18). Almsgiving, or giving to the poor, was commanded in the Law (Deuteronomy 15:7–11). And the book of Proverbs says that those who help the poor are blessed (Proverbs 14:21; 19:17). However, Jesus warns not to use this duty as a platform to earn human praise (Matthew 6:1–2). God isn’t pleased with a showcased or theatrical display of pride and self-glorification. Giving should be done “in secret”—only witnessed by God. Then God “who sees what is done in secret” will reward us (v. 4).

By Xochitl Dixon|
Secret Giver

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. Matthew 6:1

For Christopher, a physically disabled veteran, everyday activities had become more challenging, took longer to finish, and increased his pain. Still, he did his best to serve his wife and child. Passersby would see him using a push-mower to cut his lawn every week.

One day, Christopher received a letter—and an expensive riding lawnmower—from an anonymous donor. The secret giver’s satisfaction came through the privilege of helping someone in need.

Jesus doesn’t say that all our giving should be in secret, but He does remind us to check our motives when we give (Matthew 6:1). He also said: “When you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others” (v. 2). While God expects us to be openhanded givers, He encourages us to avoid doing good deeds in front of people for the purpose of receiving accolades or special recognition (v. 3).

When we realize everything we have comes from God, we can be secret givers who don’t need to pat our own backs or gain the admiration of others. Our all-knowing Giver of all good things delights in the genuine generosity of His people. Nothing beats the reward of His approval.

How has God helped you through someone else’s secret giving? Who can you help with an anonymous gift today?

Loving God, please bless me with opportunities to give as selflessly and sacrificially as You have given to me.

Read Compassion: Learning to Love Like Jesus at DiscoverySeries.org/Q0208.

My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers
Monday, May 31, 2021
Put God First

Jesus did not commit Himself to them…for He knew what was in man. —John 2:24-25

Put Trust in God First. Our Lord never put His trust in any person. Yet He was never suspicious, never bitter, and never lost hope for anyone, because He put His trust in God first. He trusted absolutely in what God’s grace could do for others. If I put my trust in human beings first, the end result will be my despair and hopelessness toward everyone. I will become bitter because I have insisted that people be what no person can ever be— absolutely perfect and right. Never trust anything in yourself or in anyone else, except the grace of God.

Put God’s Will First. “Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God” (Hebrews 10:9).

A person’s obedience is to what he sees to be a need— our Lord’s obedience was to the will of His Father. The rallying cry today is, “We must get to work! The heathen are dying without God. We must go and tell them about Him.” But we must first make sure that God’s “needs” and His will in us personally are being met. Jesus said, “…tarry…until you are endued with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). The purpose of our Christian training is to get us into the right relationship to the “needs” of God and His will. Once God’s “needs” in us have been met, He will open the way for us to accomplish His will, meeting His “needs” elsewhere.

Put God’s Son First. “Whoever receives one little child like this in My name receives Me” (Matthew 18:5).

God came as a baby, giving and entrusting Himself to me. He expects my personal life to be a “Bethlehem.” Am I allowing my natural life to be slowly transformed by the indwelling life of the Son of God? God’s ultimate purpose is that His Son might be exhibited in me.

WISDOM FROM OSWALD CHAMBERS

It is not what a man does that is of final importance, but what he is in what he does. The atmosphere produced by a man, much more than his activities, has the lasting influence.  Baffled to Fight Better, 51 L

Bible in a Year: 2 Chronicles 13-14; John 12:1-26

A Word with You, by Ron Hutchcraft
Monday, May 31, 2021
The Altar - Whatever it Takes - #8971

One of our ministry team had just gotten married, and most of our team was there. We had a lot of fun together, and in spite of the fact that I'm really very serious all the time. But, anticipating the bride would do the customary thing of, you know, throwing the bouquet at the reception, I had a special warning for Pam, one of the single young women on our staff. I told her that I had designated two big guys to tie her to her chair when it was time for the bouquet tossing. In case you've missed this little custom, the story is that whoever catches the bride's bouquet will be the next one married. Well, the big guys never materialized and Pam made sure she was front and center for the big moment. The other girls never stood a chance. She played defense with flying elbows; she lunged to make the big catch. It's the first time I've ever known of first-aid being administered at a bouquet toss. All right, I'm exaggerating just a little... but just a little. Pam was not to be denied having the next wedding! By the way, who thought up this custom anyway?

I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "The Altar - Whatever it Takes."

"I'm getting married soon, whatever it takes!" Well, the grabbing of the bridal bouquet is sort of a fun pursuit of that goal. For many, there's nothing fun about it. It's the most serious pursuit in their life.

Maybe it's you or someone you know, just living to be married. When you want it badly and it just isn't happening, it's easy to become more and more frustrated, and honestly more and more desperate. Which can, in turn, cause you to make some lifetime mistakes that will cost you the very happiness you want so much; a mistake like settling for the wrong person.

One longtime single man I know said it this way: "I'd far rather live wanting what I don't have than having what I don't want." Some who belong to Jesus will settle for marrying someone who doesn't even share that most important of all relationships. That's why the Bible commands, not suggests, commands, "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers" (2 Corinthians 6:14). You violate God's boundary and you get a marriage without God's blessing, and no love is worth that.

Genesis 24:14 suggests a powerful prayer for every single person, "Let her (or him, as the case may be) be the one the Lord has chosen." I've talked to so many people who have made a lifetime marriage mistake because of loneliness, desperation, and they all agree: there's something lonelier than not being married. That's being married to the wrong person. That's the loneliest lonely of all.

Our word for today from the Word of God is an awesome promise for anyone wondering if they will ever have the love they crave. Philippians 4:19 says, "My God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus." No one knows you better than the God who made you, including all of your deepest needs. It's not going to be a man or woman who will ultimately meet those needs. It will be the God behind that promise. He's promised to give you what you need - what your Creator knows you need, not necessarily what you think you need. And He always meets our needs in His perfect time. Those who try to rush it, ruin it.

Maybe you've almost put your life on hold until you find that man or woman to marry. Don't waste a precious day of your life waiting for what you don't have. Live this day - single or married - with all your heart! And don't let your waiting start to turn you hard and cynical, bitter, negative. Those kinds of responses insult the God who said He will meet your needs, and by the way, they repel love rather than attract it.

Don't miss what God is doing in your life because all you can focus on is what you wish He was doing. Celebrate this day, knowing "this is the day the Lord has made" (Psalm 118:24) and that "the Lord is your shepherd and you shall not want" (Psalm 23:1).