Prayer for Revival in our lands and in our time!

 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil— to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! (Isaiah 64:1-2 ESV)

O FOR THE SPIRIT OF GRACE AND SUPPLICATION!

It is God’s will through his wonderful grace, that the prayers of his saints should be one of the great principal means of carrying on the designs of Christ’s kingdom in the world. When God has something very great to accomplish for his church, it is his will that there should precede it the extraordinary prayers of his people; . . . and it is revealed that, when God is about to accomplish great things for his church, he will begin by remarkably pouring out the spirit of grace and supplication. (Jonathan Edwards, Some Thoughts on Revival)

PRAY FOR REVIVAL

Oh! men and brethren, what would this heart feel if I could but believe that there were some among you who would go home and pray for a revival: men whose faith is large enough, and their love fiery enough to lead them from this moment to exercise unceasing intercessions that God would appear among us and do wondrous things here, as in the times of former generations. (Charles Spurgeon)

When did you last hear anyone praying for revival, praying that God might open the windows of heaven and pour out his Spirit? When did you last pray for that yourself? I suggest seriously that we are neglecting this almost entirely. We are guilty of forgetting the authority of the Holy Spirit. . . . When God sends revival he can do more in a single day than in fifty years of all our organization. That is the verdict of sheer history which emerges clearly from the long story of the Church. (Martin Lloyd-Jones)

Martin Lloyd Jones  commenting on Dr. Sprague's book, Lectures on Revival, published by Banner of Truth, wrote in the foreword:

I am profoundly convinced that the greatest need in the world today is revival in the Church of God. Yet alas! the whole idea of revival seems to have become strange to so many good Christian people... [This] is due both to a serious misunderstanding of the scriptures, and to woeful ignorance of the history of the Church...

My prayer is that as we read it and are reminded of "Our glorious God," and of His mighty deeds in times past among His people, a great sense of our own unworthiness and inadequacy, and a corresponding longing for the manifestation of his glory and His power will be created within us. His "arm is not shortened." May this book stir us all to plead with Him to make bare that arm and to stretch it forth again, that His enemies may be confounded and scattered and His people's hearts be filled with gladness and rejoicing.

POUR YOUR SPIRIT O LORD!

MOBILIZE OTHERS AS WELL TO PRAY FOR REVIVAL

These men were a centuries apart and were of the same mind about the church being fervent in prayer for revival. Will you join me in seeking to mobilize God's children to pray earnestly, fervently, and ceaselessly for revival in our lands and in our day?

PRAYER

O Lord please rend the heavens and pour the Spirit of truth and zeal among your redeemed to pray and preach Christ now than ever; to desire holiness more than worldliness; Yes and to love your Kingdom and your Son more than anything this city of vainglory can afford.

O Lord show mercy and forgive our many sins. We have abdicated our responsibility of speaking of Christ wherever and whenever you have placed us. We have not lived such godly lives as we ought. We have neither loved you with the whole our essence or as we ought, nor have we loved our neighbour as ourselves. For this we are guilty and deserve the full measure of your wrath. We deserve judgement and condemnation. But please show mercy to us for the sake of your Son our Saviour. Give us your Holy Spirit to teach us and to help us to live holy lives that we may be such instruments of righteousness as you would have us.

How long, O gracious and loving Saviour will we continue to hear falsehood and heresy, and see worldliness and wickedness being propagated as the gospel? How long, will these preachers clothed as angels of light yet they are ravenous wolves in sheepskin, continue to sell lies as truth? O Lord rend the heavens and deal with them in the same measure of their iniquity. Turn them around as you did the wicked Balaam. Cause even ants to speak to them if not a donkey, if this is your will,so that you stop them from their madness.

Please raise men who are eager to spend and be spent preaching the glorious truths of the gospel. Kindly bless such efforts with myriads of conversions. Please hearken to this call gracious Lord and give such faith that will not shrink even in the midst of woe, a faith that is tired of all these charismatic drama. Bless us with a genuine that is real, and genuine faith, such as is more precious than silver or gold that perishes.

Anoint the gospel with the same if not greater power as you did in the days of the Apostles and of Jonathan Edwards and of George Whitfield. May your Spirit give such unction to speak powerfully as Spurgeon spoke, if not more. Vanquish all sloth, please give such zeal and move in a manner that will gloriously display the power of the sin-atoning sacrifice of our resurrected Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Revive us O Lord. Cause real revival of heart O Lord God of mercy. National and continental, even universal revivals is not a big thing to ask of you O Lord... for if you did not spare your only Son, but gave Him up for us, how will you not along with Him give us all things? May the gospel triumph in Nairobi, and in Kenya, and in Africa and in Europe, in Asia, in America and in Australia and New Zealand.

In Christ’s excellent Name and for the glory of the Father.

Amen!

How to pray when in Trouble

What Shall I say to God in the midst of trouble?

Passage Job 40:3-5.

Then Job answered the LORD and said: "Behold, I am of small account; what shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further."

In this world of sin and its misery, when trials and temptations come we are usually overwhelmed and find it difficult to cope. This is the case for Job – He is overwhelmed by the demands on his health, his family and his possessions. The devil was assailing Him with fiery darts and this made Job to go back to God demanding answers and in this he did not only display his ignorance, but he even question the wisdom of God in His works of providence and judgments. For this God challenged him very strongly by asking, "Shall a faultfinder contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it." Job 40:2. In this God is asking, Shall he pretend to dictate to God's wisdom or prescribe to his will? Shall God receive instruction from every peevish complainer, and change the measures he has taken to please him?” It is a question with disdain. Shall any teach God knowledge? Job_21:22. I am sure none of you would admit to ever have tried to contend with God. But, wait a minute, how many times have you asked God, “WHY?” Why did you allow this to happen? Why did you allow my husband to die so young? Why did you allow me to be retrenched? Why do you let my father be such a drunkard? Why did you allow me fail in my exams? Why do you leave in such poverty? These are the people are talking to this evening.

 It is suggested that those who quarrel with God do, in effect, go about to teach him how to fix his work. For if we contend with men like ourselves, as not having done well, we ought to instruct them how to do better. However, is it a thing to be suffered that any man should teach his Maker? He that contends with God is justly looked upon as his enemy; and shall he pretend so far to have prevailed in the contest as to prescribe to him? We are ignorant and short-sighted, but before him all things are naked and open; we are depending creatures, but he is the sovereign Creator; and shall we pretend to instruct him?

Job‘s example is the most exemplary and you would be wise to emulate this man – remember that God describes him as, blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil (Job 1:1). This is a man, who having lost all his property, his family and his health said, Job 1:20-21. Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD." This is a man who after his own wife became a snare said, (look this up in Job 2:9-10)Then his wife said to him, "Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die." But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Here were are – many friends have come to offer Job some counsel. God has had long conversations with God himself. Then God paused to give Job time to say what He had to say, or to think of what God had said. Three things for us to learn from Job on how to respond to God in the midst of an overwhelming calamity:

1.      It is better to remain silent than to speak rashly

It is at this point of confusion that Job elected not to say anything. Job's humble submission is silence. Now Job came to himself, and began to melt into godly sorrow. He realized that it was not for a mortal man to contend with the Almighty. He understood that it is better to remain silent before God than to speak foolishly.

When his friends reasoned with him he did not yield; but the voice of the Lord is powerful. When the Spirit of truth shall come, he shall convince. They had condemned him for a wicked man; Elihu himself had been very sharp upon him (Job_34:7, Job_34:8, Job_34:37). However, God had not given him such hard words. We may always have reason to expect better treatment from God than from sinful men, though they may be our friends. It is this knowledge that should make us be quiet in hope that the Lord will do what is right. After all His great promise to work out all things for our good is not anchored on our reasoning with Him – neither is it tethered on our silence. The Lord working out all things for good is a promise that is relied upon by those who know their God sufficiently to fully trust Him without wavering.

There is a lot of wisdom in keeping silent and know that the Lord Jehovah is God and we are men. This is a lesson that Job had learnt too well. When Zophar his friend had said that Job deserved worse (chapter 11) than what he had, Job responded in at least two ways – that the Lord has done this (chapter 12) and secondly that I will still hope in God. In this second way, he said, Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom! (V5). Amos so clearly says, Therefore he who is prudent will keep silent in such a time, for it is an evil time. Amos 5:13.

It in this that a sinner must learnt to be mute under the smarting rod of God. For, surely these afflictions are but God’s love tokens! As many as I love I rebuke and chasten (Rev. 3:19)! So says the holy Christian “O my soul! Be quiet, be still. All is sent in love, all is a fruit of divine favour. I see honey upon the top of every twig; I see the rod is but a rosemary branch; I have sugar with my gall, and wine with my wormwood; therefore be silent, o my soul. (Richard Brooks)

This the good man is here overcome by, and yields himself a conquered captive to the grace of God. He acknowledges that there is nothing in his hand, or in his mouth he can bring before an infinitely holy God that is acceptable. He acknowledged that he is a man and God is God and no man should teach Him anything. We have something to learn from Job that we must not try to teach or instruct God. He is in heaven and He does whatsoever He pleases for His counsel shall stand as He is the Sovereign.

2.      Remember that a  humble and contrite spirit the Lord will receive

Here he gives the reason of his silence; it was not because he was sullen, but because he was convinced he had been in the wrong. Those that are truly sensible of their own sinfulness and vileness dare not justify themselves before God, but are ashamed that ever they entertained such a thought, and, in token of their shame, lay their hand upon their mouth.

Job answered God but with fear and trembling. He began with all humility and a contrite spirit. He demeaned himself saying – “I am of small account…” In this statement Job admits that he is not equal to the task before him, of speaking to the Almighty. It is better to shut his mouth because whatever he might say cannot be to the point since he is a man of sin. And when He did speak it is with uttermost humility.

Clearly in saying that he is vile, he owns himself as an offender and a sinner. He is broken in His sins and so he has nothing to say in his own justification. “Behold, I am vile…” is not only mean and contemptible, but “…vile and abominable, in my own eyes, and much more before the eyes of God.” He is now sensible that he has sinned, and therefore calls himself vile. Sin debases us, and penitent people abase themselves, reproach themselves, are ashamed before God. A sinner under the smarting rod is more often even confounded for he acknowledges that in his sinfulness he has acted irresponsibly to the gracious and benevolent Father. In sinning a sinner shows ungratefulness to his benefactor. Sin is lack of wisdom before God and in this Job is right in calling himself of small account or vile.

Brokenness of heart is stopping to justify and magnify oneself like Job had hitherto done and vilify oneself in repentance. For in repentance a sinner is self-accusing. In repentance a sinner inflicts self-indictments. If you remember, before this incidence had been too bold in demanding answers from God. He thought that he could make his part good with God. However, he is now he is convinced of his error, and owns himself utterly unable to stand before God or to produce anything worth God’s notice. He considered himself the vilest of the worms that ever crawled upon God's ground. He understood that he was a trespasser in God’s property who was chanting “Haki yangu!” as if God owned any explanations. Repentance changes men's opinion of themselves.

While his friends talked with him, he answered them, for he thought himself as good as they; but, when God talked with him, he had nothing to say, for, in comparison with him, he sees himself nothing, less than nothing, worse than nothing, vanity and vileness itself.

3.      It is a commitment to sin no more

In his repentance Job said, “…I lay my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, and I will not answer; twice, but I will proceed no further."  In this he is promising not to offend any more as he had done. Elihu had told him that this is what was proper and fitting to be said to God. When we have spoken amiss, in our sinfulness and depravity we must repent of it and not repeat it or stand to it.

He enjoins himself silence (Job_40:4): “I will lay my hand upon my mouth. He is promising to bridle his tongue as James advises us, Jas 3:2. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body. Wisdom will teach you to suppress all passionate thoughts which may arise in my mind, and keep them from breaking out in unrestrained speeches.” Remember that self-control is part of the fruit of the Spirit. Surely, it is bad enough to think amiss, but it is much worse to speak amiss…it is publishing the seditious libel. Therefore, if thou hast thought evil, lay thy hand upon thy mouth and let it go no further (Pro_30:32).

Job had allowed too much of his evil thoughts to vent themselves: “Once have I spoken amiss, yea, twice,” that is, “different times, in one speech and in another, again and again, we may put it. He is admitting to be a serial offender and sinner and this is what we all are, left to our own fallen faculties.

By the grace of God, actuated by the Spirit of God, he pleads with the Lord in repentance, saying, I will not answer; I will not stand to what I have said, nor say it again; I will proceed no further.” Job so well understood that the least of sin is an offense to the great God; is a wrong to the immortal soul, is a breach to God’s righteous law and so it cannot be washed away except  by the blood of Christ. The least sin in your eyes will shut the soul out of heaven and send it hell forever and ever.

Applications

Observe here what true repentance is.

1)      It is to rectify our errors and mistakes. We are to immediately deal with all the false principles and activities we did. What we have long, and often, and vigorously maintained, once, yes, twice, we must retract as soon as we are convinced that it is a mistake, not adhere to it any longer, but take shame to ourselves for holding it so long.

2)      It is to return from every off-road and to proceed not one step further in it: “I will not add” (so the word is). “I will never indulge my passion so much again, nor give myself such a freedom of speech and licentiousness. I will never say as I have said nor do as I have done.” Till it comes to this, we come short of repentance.

3)      Those who argue with God will be silenced at last. Job had been too bold and forward in demanding a discussion with God, and talked very boldly, how plain he would make his case, and how sure he was that he should be justified. How foolish for a sinner to be so presumptuous and preposterous! He had said, that as a prince he would go near to God (Job_31:37). he would come even to God’s seat (Job_23:3).  His prior claims now are untenable because the Lord has graciously opened his eyes. The Spirit has worked in him and his thinking is so different now. From a brazen sinner he is now a repentant and pardoned sinner. “Lord, the wisdom and right are all on your side, and I have done foolishly and wickedly in questioning them.

I charge you, O my soul, not to mutter nor murmur. I command you, O my soul, to be silent under the afflicting hand of God. Peace, O my soul! Be still, leave your muttering, leave your murmuring, leave your complaining, leave your chafing, and vexing, and lay your hand upon your mouth, and be silent. O my soul! Be quiet, be silent, else you will one day be called in question for all those inward mutterings, uproars, and passions that are in you, seeing no sufficient cause can be produced why you should murmur, quarrel, or wrangle under the righteous hand of God.

ONE Lethal Sin!

CONSIDER THIS:
By eating one fruit, Adam lost paradise!
By a single Adam's sin, all his posterity risk hell!
One instance of sleep for Noah brought his whole race into condemnation!
One morsel led to a permanent loss of inheritance for Esau!
One Achan was a trouble to all Israel!
One Delilah may do Samson as much mischief as all the Philistines!
One stab strikes Goliath just as dead as twenty-three did Caesar!
One lick of honey endangered Jonathan’s life!
One Jonah raises a storm and becomes a load too heavy for the whole ship!
One vein bleeding will let out all the vitals!
One leak in a ship will sink it!
One fly will spoil a whole box of ointment!
One bitter herb will spoil all the pottage!
One broken wheel spoils the whole clock!


Gideon had seventy sons, and but one bastard child, yet that bastard child destroyed all his seventy sons! Ah, Christian! Do you not know what a world of mischief one unmortified lust can do? Therefore, let nothing satisfy you but the blood of all your lusts! 
Just so, one unmortified lust will raise very strong storms and tempests in the soul!

THE DEATH OF YOUR SIN... BRAY FOR ITS DEATH NOW THAN EVER - FOR THE ETERNAL SALVATION OF YOUR SOUL!

God is God!

 Passage Job 42:1-6. 

Then Job answered the LORD and said: "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.' I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."

You will admit that we all tend to speak too quickly, and more often than not, without full knowledge and understanding. And this mars the goodwill or intention of the speaker, leading to misunderstanding. As you will discover, most of the relational problems are a fruit of misunderstanding. You allow your ignorance to be the glasses upon which you judge a situation. We must not do this with God – we have no excuse of dealing with God in this crooked manner for He has revealed what should be said in His Word.

Job in this passage has well understood this problem – this is the way he had related, and responded to God. When God asked him in Job 38:2, "Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?”

What did he say? He was unable to answer but only resigned himself to silence – this was a good progress as I pointed out in the last sermon. The Lord went on to prove to him that he knew nothing. Challenge upon challenge led Job to the present point where he admits his lack of understanding and knowledge (v.3); and begs for a new enlightenment of who God is so that he was led to despise himself to repent in dust and ashes (v.6)

What are the lessons for us in this passage? There is one lesson – that God is God and we all are human beings – the work of His hands. Three things that show that God is God:

1)    God can do all things

In this passage, Job has learnt his lessons well from the tutorship of God.  He now submits his sincere devotion to the truth of God's unlimited power, knowledge, and dominion. He trustingly states his knowledge of who God is when he states without any doubt that God ‘can do all things…’(v.2). This means that he proves that he had grasped the scope of God's address out of the whirlwind (40:6). There is no doubt that corrupt desires and practices arise either from some corrupt principles or from the neglect and disbelief of the principles of truth.

Therefore when Job here articulates who God is, he is led to repentance because true repentance begins in the acknowledgement of the truth as the Apostles puts it in 2Timothy_2:25. Job here is evidently convinced of the greatness, glory, and perfection of God. He has understood and so believes from a sure conviction of his conscience concerning his own folly in speaking irreverently to him.

What does Job mean when he says that God can do all things? God has already told him what He has done and what He can do. God asked Job to be careful in demanding answers from God because in so doing he was obscuring the counsel of God by words of ignorance. So God demanded that Job prepare for action by answering the questions that He put forth – where were you Job, in your folly, when I laid down the foundation of the earth? God is the Creator. He determined the measurements and all the creation is the work of His hands. Who shall dare question Him? Furthermore, God is the Sustainer of all things. We believe that God governs and preserves all His creation and all their actions, with a meticulous sovereign eye.

The implication of this is that there is nothing which can be too hard for Him. What can be too hard for him who made behemoth and leviathan, and manages both as he pleases? God had made all this truth clearer by His argument before Job.

Therefore, when God had spoken it once, Job heard it twice! What did Job hear twice? That power belongs to God. Therefore it is the greatest madness and presumption imaginable to contend with him.

The reason why we can confidently offer prayers to God is because of the understanding that God can do all things. God has promised to work out all things for the good of those whom He has called according to His purposes and those who love Him (Romans 8:28). This promise is anchored upon the presupposition that God can do all things. Therefore Apostle Paul praised God upon this knowledge like this, “…Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Eph. 3:20-21)

2)    God’s purposes cannot be thwarted

God’s decrees are His eternal purpose according to the counsel of His own will, whereby for His own glory, He has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. His purposes are forever sure because He is in heavens and He does all that He pleases (Psalm 115:2-3). Whatever the Lord pleases, he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all deeps (Psalm 135:6).  And again, “… all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, "What have you done?" (Daniel 4:35). Our prayers do not change God – they cannot change Him. Our prayers show that we are depending on God’s purpose in our lives. There are those who think that God does not have a definite will and purpose for His creation, so that like the prophets of Baal, they shout their heads off demanding God to do their bidding. They think that by multiplying words, or by shouting loudly, that God will hear them.

There is no thought of God that does not come to fruition. There is no plan of God that can miscarry because of some unforeseeable future for His purposes are sure. Job well understood this truth when he said, But he is unchangeable, and who can turn him back? What he desires, that he does. (Job 23:13) In this verse, Job displays his knowledge in the sovereignty of God.

However, it was said in the midst of complaining. But now he says in faith, with pleasure and satisfaction that God's counsels shall stand. This is one of the most satisfying knowledge especially in the midst of sorrow and suffering. If God's thoughts concerning us are thoughts of good, to give us an unexpected end, He cannot be withheld from accomplishing His gracious purposes, whatever difficulties may seem to lie in the way.

Job believed that it is ultimately God who brings about His purposes through whatever He appoints. This truth is all over the Scripture - The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps. (Prov. 16:9). At best a man can plan, but the Lord has the final word.

Therefore, is in vain to contend with God. We cannot hide our thoughts and projects from him for He is all-knowing God. There is no thought of His that He can be hindered from executing. You realize that if God’s purposes were to be hindered by men, then God would cease to be God and we would be the most hopeless in prayer! If men’s ways were to prevail against God’s, then wickedness could reign.

Were it not that the counsel of the Lord, then we would be scared of the devil and his wiles. If God’s purposes were to be thwarted by men or angels or time, or life and death on anything else in all the earth, then we would be hopeless. But the Lord is sure in undertaking to love His people. He has stated so certainly, in answer to the question, Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?... No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom. 8:35, 37-39

3)    God is too wonderful for us

The knowledge of who is God has converse implication for who we are. In this passage Job says much about God and in effect shows who man is. Both true knowledge of God and man is revealed by God. Man is left with a responsibility to worship God in sheer humility and self-abasement. This is exactly what happened with Job, for he said:

'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' In this is an acceptance that man hides the counsel of God without knowledge. Man is naturally devoid of true knowledge because of Adam, our natural father, ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and in so doing, rejected the true knowledge of God. Job also acknowledged that he had uttered what  he did not understand. For a mortal man, finite in his scope of understanding, limited in knowledge and wisdom  to think that he can be able to fully comprehend who God is to be presumptuous. Therefore the Lord prayed, At that time Jesus declared, "I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. (Matt. 11:25-26)

There is no doubt that the things of God are too wonderful for you and I. Unless God graciously revealed Himself to us we cannot know Him – for how can we know One who is in heaven when we are on earth? How can we know the One who is Spirit when we are of the flesh? How can we possibly know the One is eternal and immortal when we are mortal beings? How can we comprehend the One who is immutable or unchangeable when we are men prone to change, corruption, decay, sickness age and death? How can we understand One who is infinite in wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth?

Therefore, any attempt to think that we can respond to God without His revealing Himself to us is pure fantasy. It is to speak which you did not know. Unless God graciously makes Himself known to us personally and have such a relationship with Him, we remain those who only hear of Him by hearing but not by a relational knowledge.

God is too wonderful for us and the beginning of all wisdom is fearing God, keeping His commandments for this is the duty of man. We should careful not to answer back to God or question Him in our prayers. Has he not asked the awful question, ‘But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is moulded say to its moulder, "Why have you made me like this?"’ (Rom 9:20)

We see what God does, but we neither know why he does it, what he is aiming at, nor what he will bring out of it. These are things too wonderful for us. They are out of our sight to discover. They are out of our reach to alter. They are out of our jurisdiction to judge. They are things which we know not; it is quite above our capacity to pass a verdict upon them. As Matthew Henry rightly pointed out in his commentary.

Therefore, in our prayers, we must know that God has given us a privilege, that He listens to us. He is not obligated to listen to us. But we know that He will listen to our praying because He has promised to listen to His people. His Son, Jesus Christ, has provided us with such an unlimited access into His throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace in times of need. Our Saviour has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility so that all may go in and have an hearing of God! This is an encouragement to pray, as we have no hindrance.

In effect this calls us to respond in three ways:

1.       In humility and self-abasement

One thing to praise the Lord for in the life of Job in the midst of all the trouble that befell him was that he got to the point of  stopping to justify himself before God. Then he began to judge, even condemn himself (vv.4,5). He realized his utter wretchedness and unworthiness before God.

Then he went on to pour repentance. He said, therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." He is here thoroughly humbled for his folly and ill-advised speaking, and it was forgiven him. Good men will see and own their faults at last, though it may be some difficulty to bring them to do this. The best prayer before God is repentance.

Job admitted that he had known something of the greatness, and power, and sovereign dominion of God. However, he also admitted that he had been brought by what he heard, to submit himself to God. The truth is that it is a great mercy to have a good knowledge of the things of God by the instructions of his word and ministers. Faith comes by hearing, and then it is most likely to come when we hear attentively and with the hearing of the ear. When the understanding is enlightened by the Spirit of grace our knowledge of divine things as far exceeds what we had before.

Self-loathing is evermore the companion of true repentance. Ezekiel 6:9, And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations. We must not only be angry at ourselves for the wrong and damage we have done by sin to our own souls, but must abhor ourselves for having made ourselves odious to the pure and holy God, who cannot endure to look upon iniquity. If sin be truly an abomination to us, sin in ourselves will especially be so. The nearer it is to us the more loathsome it will be. This in itself is a reason to ever want to be close to God so that He can shine His glorious light to us and cause us see how filthy and full of sin we are.

2.       In accordance to the Word that He has spoken

Job has become a very careful man now, for he has learned to quote meticulously what God has said and respond in great humility. Two statements he quoted, 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?'… 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.' (v.3. quoted from 38:2; v. 4. quoted from 38:3)

It is very helpful and wise to make sure that we respond to God by His Word. Then and then only are we sure not to err. Unless the Word of God is central in responding to God, we have no hope of getting much from the prayers.  We must understand the importance of this because we see men of old do this again and again.

3.      In true and genuine repentance

Job admitted His guilt before God, which is what God had charged him with at the beginning of His discourse (v.3) “Lord, the first word you said was, Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge? There was no need for one more word to convince and convict me of my folly, Yes, Lord that word convinced me. I own up I am the man that has been so foolish. That word reached my conscience, and set my sin clearly before me. It is too plain to be denied, too bad to be excused. I have hidden counsel without knowledge. In this Job is admitting that:

a)    He had ignorantly overlooked the counsels and designs of God in afflicting him. He accepted his ignorance of the divine counsels and so we are all. We tend to run away from the providence of God in our lives – to our own ruin. When Jonah run away from God’s purpose, He was forced to do what He did not want to do. Balaam, that false prophet was forced to proclaim what God wanted and nothing less! The reason why we quarrel with Providence is because we do not understand it; and we must be content to be in the dark about it, until the mystery of God shall be finished.

b)    He admitted that he was foolish, unwise and presumptuous in seeking to argue with that which he did not understand. We wrong ourselves, as well as the cause which we undertake to determine, while we are no competent judges of it when we seek to engage the Sovereign God in endless arguments.

c)    He accepted His sinfulness in sorrow. In true repentance there must be not only conviction of sin, but repentance and godly sorrow for it, sorrow according to God, (2Cor. 7:9) Such was Job's sorrow for his sins.

It concerns us to be deeply humbled for the sins we are convinced of, and not to rest in a slight superficial displeasure against ourselves for them. We all must be greatly afflicted in soul for the workings and breakings out of pride, passion, irritability, foolishness and discontent, and all their hasty unadvised speeches.

Job repented in dust and ashes. Note that outward show of repentance in dust and ashes without an inward change, only mock God. However, where they come from sincere contrition of soul, the sinner by them gives glory to God, takes shame to himself, and may be instrumental to bring others to repentance.

The more we see of the glory and majesty of God, and the more we see of the vileness and odiousness of sin and of ourselves because of sin, the more we shall loathe and abhor ourselves for it. “Now my eye sees what a God he is whom I have offended. Yes, I see the brightness of that majesty which by wilful sin I have spit in the face of. Yes, I now behold the tenderness of that mercy which I have spurned. I now see t I see what a just and holy God he is whose wrath I have incurred. Therefore, I will abhor myself. Woe is me, for I am undone,” Isa_6:5. God had challenged Job to look upon proud men and abase them. “I cannot,” says Job, “pretend to do it. I have enough to do to get my own proud heart humbled.