Consign Your Gold To Dust - Job 22

Sometimes, prayer becomes difficult because we've lost our intimacy with God.  In Job 22:21-30, Eliphaz gives his friend Job some good advice about regaining closeness to God.  He says, "Come to terms with God and be at peace; in this way good will come to you.  Receive instruction from His mouth, and place His sayings in your heart (verses 21-22 HCSB)."  When a person can 'agree with God (ESV)', or 'come to terms with God (HCSB)', or 'acquaint now thyself with Him (KJV)', or 'reconcile yourself with God (NET)', then the result is peace.  Peace is found through by receiving God's instructions, and placing His sayings in your heart.  These words perfectly describe the practice of meditation.  The Logos Prayer, or praying the word of God, fills your heart with God's instructions, and thus draws your heart back into a place where you can agree with God once again.

Verses 23-25 (HCSB) say, "If you return to the Almighty, you will be renewed.  If you banish injustice from your tent and consign your gold to the dust, the gold of Ophir to the stones in the wadis, the Almighty will be your gold and your finest silver."  Returning to God doesn't necessarily mean that one has completely left him.  Rather, it means a change of heart and mind, once again aligning the Self with God.  This is done by banishing injustice (inequity) from the tent (soul) of the believer.  Eliphaz's point is that Job has departed from a close relationship with God, and that he needs to return.  Perhaps you also need to return to a closer walk with the Lord.  

Verse 24 says that the way to return to the Almighty is to consign your gold to the dust, and the gold of Ophir to the stones in the wadis.  This involves discarding all that the world offers, which has value in the eyes of society, and exchanging it for the riches of God.  Then, "the Almighty will be your gold and your finest silver (v. 25)."  

It also means considering all my glory as loss.  Philippians 3:7-8 (HCSB) says, "But everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.  More than that, I also consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. Because of Him I have suffered the loss of all things and consider them filth, so that I may gain Christ."

Verse 26 says, "Then [and only then] you will delight in the Almighty and lift up your face to God."  There's a difference between relating to God out if duty and fear (this attitude indicated by a posture of downcast head), and delighting in God (demonstrated by an uplifted face).  You can delight in God once you have aligned your soul to His, and agreed with Him.  The result is that "you will pray to Him, and He will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.  When you make a decision, it will be carried out, and light will shine on your ways.  When others are humiliated and you say, 'Lift them up,' God will save the humble.  He will even rescue the guilty one, who will be rescued by the purity of your hands (Verses 27-30)."

When, like Job, you feel that prayer is difficult because you have lost your intimacy with God, return to a place of agreement with Him by consigning your gold to dust.  This means rejecting everything that the world says is important in favor of what God says is important.  It means letting go of your sense of self that is based on the world's view, and exchanging it for God's view of you in light of His redeeming love.  Then God will lift your face to Himself, and you will return once more to that right relationship that was lost. 

A MEDITATION WITH ECUMENICAL PRAYER BEADS

(Click here to get your own)

Invitatory

21 Come to terms with God and be at peace;

in this way good will come to you.

22 Receive instruction from His mouth,

and place His sayings in your heart.

Cruciform

24 ...Consign your gold to the dust...

Weeks

25 the Almighty will be your gold

and your finest silver.

Benedictory

26 Then you will delight in the Almighty

and lift up your face to God.

27 You will pray to Him, and He will hear you...

PRAYER:

Lord, show me all the gold that I have treasured in my heart, that I need to throw into the street, that I must regard as dust.  Let me never glory in my own wealth of talent or my own sense of worthiness.  May I never derive my self-esteem from what the world thinks of me (which is the value of gold).  Rather, may I glory in You, the Lifter of my head.  Amen.

The Prayer of a Weaned Child

The Prayer of a Weaned Child

Jehovah, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty; Neither do I exercise myself in great matters, Or in things too wonderful for me.  Surely I have stilled and quieted my soul; Like a weaned child with his mother, Like a weaned child is my soul within me.  O Israel, hope in Jehovah From this time forth and for evermore. A Song of Ascents.   (Psalm 131 ASV)

This is one of my favorite psalms because of its simplicity and honesty.  Too often I find myself in a proud and haughty position.  As a father to my children, I must be aware that I'm constantly learning along with them.  As a pastor, I need to remind myself of the servant part of servant-leadership.  As a theologian, I have to constantly recall my own lowliness before the God whom I have the audacity to presume to understand.  This psalm puts a check on my pride and haughtiness, reminding me of my true position before God.

One of the things that bothered Jesus the most as he watched hypocrites pray was the way they would exalt themselves in prayer. In Matthew 6:5-8 (ISV), He said, "And whenever you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to stand in the synagogues and on the street corners so that they will be seen by people. I tell all of you  with certainty, they have their full reward!  But whenever you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father who is hidden. And your Father who sees from the hidden place will reward you.  When you are praying, don’t say meaningless things  like the gentiles do, because they think they will be heard by being so wordy.  Don’t be like them, because your Father knows what you need before you ask him."

Jesus understood the value of praying differently from the way the rest of the world prays.  Privately rather than pridefully--that was His motto.  If your prayers are going to be intimate then you shouldn't broadcast them to the world.  And you definitely should keep yourself in proper perspective.  In Luke 18:10-14 (ISV) Jesus tells a story about two different kinds of prayers and pray-ers.  “Two men went up to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘O God, I thank you that I’m not like other people—thieves, dishonest people, adulterers, or even this tax collector.   I fast twice a week, and I give a tenth of my entire income.’  But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even look up to heaven. Instead, he continued to beat his chest and said, ‘O God, be merciful to me, the sinner that I am!’   I tell you, this man, rather than the other one, went down to his home justified, because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the person who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Psalm 131 demonstrates the kind of perspective that Jesus was talking about.  No pride.  No haughtiness.  Not trying to figure out theological puzzles or life conundrums that are too great or lofty, because such such arrogance displeases God.  Instead, the psalmist says that his prayer is altogether different.  What does he do when he goes into his private prayer room?  He stills and quiets his soul, like a weaned child with its mother.  That's it.  Silence and rest.  Perfect contentment in God's presence.  What could be more beautiful than that?

I remember when my children were nursing infants, how they cried after their mother when they were hungry.  One of my children in particular constantly wanted to nurse,  always groping to find a breast and the nourishment it provided.  One day, in despair, my wife said, "You don't want me--you just want Milk Factory".  And she was right.  That's exactly what the baby wanted.  How often we are like that baby, when we go to God in prayer.  We don't really want God.  We are only interested in the blessings we can get from Him.

Instead of ceaselessly grasping after God, the psalmist says he rests himself in the Lord.  Like a weaned child who finally appreciates his mother for who she is and is able to lay his head on her breast without asking for milk, the praying person should be able to rest in God without asking for anything.  "I have stilled and quieted my soul," says the psalmist.  To do this, just relax, understanding that God will feed you when it's time.  As you pray, try not to use words at all, for this is grasping after what you want.  Close your eyes with a contented smile, as a three-year-old would do as she places her head on her mother's breast.  Just be with God.  That is the prayer of a weaned child.

Practicing the Presence, Or, Procrastinating Prayer?

Practicing the Presence,

Or

Procrastinating Prayer?

            When I invited my church family to covenant with me to pray for an hour a day, I was pleasantly surprised at how many accepted the challenge.  I’m sure that many were already praying for longer periods of time than I was.  I also know that many felt that this was a miserably long amount of time to spend rattling off a prayer list.  Frankly, I agreed with them, and encouraged them instead to spend that hour seeking God rather than seeking God’s blessings.    Still others came to me with what seemed like a pious objection to the idea of spending a quiet hour with Jesus:

            “I spend all day with Jesus,” they said.  “When I’m driving down the road, I’m thanking Him for the beautiful day.  When somebody at work tells me about some trouble they’re having, I take a second and ask God to bless them.  When my kids have me at wit’s end, I ask God for help.  Why do I need to spend a certain time alone in a chair, praying, when I can spend all day with the Lord?”

            It sounds good, on the surface.  I mean, who could argue with something like that?  Yes—we should spend all day with Jesus, in just the ways that have been stated above.  We should practice the day-in, day-out presence of God in our lives.  In fact, The Practice of the Presence of God is a wonderful work by Brother Lawrence, a must-read for anyone who wants to learn prayer.  In a nutshell, Brother Lawrence was a 17^th century Carmelite monk who hated his job working in the monastery’s kitchen.  It seemed an unspiritual drudgery to him, until one day he had a revelation:  Every dish and floor he scrubbed, he scrubbed for Jesus.  From that moment, he began to practice the presence of God everywhere he went.  He spent his days cooking with Jesus.  He passed his hours cleaning with the Master who cleansed his soul.  When he made his relationship with Jesus the main thing in his life, suddenly everything else took on new meaning.  Brother Lawrence writes, “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed."  He also says:

"We should fix ourselves firmly in the presence of God by conversing all the time with Him...we should feed our soul with a lofty conception of God and from that derive great joy in being his. We should put life in our faith. We should give ourselves utterly to God in pure abandonment, in temporal and spiritual matters alike, and find contentment in the doing of His will,whether he takes us through sufferings or consolations.”

What a beautiful thing, to practice the presence of Almighty God!  If this is what my parishioners meant when they said they spent all day with Jesus, then I applaud them.  I wish every Christian would spend all day with Jesus in this way.  The problem comes not from practicing the presence of God, but when this form of prayer is the only form of prayer.

An exasperated husband once sat with me in my church office, talking through his marital problems.  “I don’t know what she wants,” he said.  “She says she wants more time with me, but I think I spend plenty of time with her.”

“What to do you spend time doing?” I asked.

“We do everything together,” he said.  “We go shopping together.  We work in the garden together.  We watch movies together.  We eat dinner together every night.  We talk together.”

“But have you ever tried listening together?” I asked.

Now that was something he’d never tried.  He’d spent so much time just doing the mundane things of life—and those were good things.  But while he passed the time with her, he’d busied himself with his own talking.  So much so that he never took the time to listen.

The same can be true when we practice the presence of God.  Brother Lawrence’s epiphany was just what he needed at the time—a fresh experience of the mundane world.  He needed Christ’s presence to sanctify everything in his life.  The practice of the presence of God called him to “pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17 NASB).”  Perhaps Lawrence’s spiritual awakening is just what you need—or maybe it has become an excuse for you to neglect a real quiet time with Jesus. 

Don’t get me wrong—I’m not saying you should compartmentalize your relationship with the Lord into one hour on your knees.  Lawrence was on to something, and so was Paul when he wrote to the Thessalonians.  But asking God to bless your efforts throughout the day is not enough.  There must be lengthy times of intimacy between the believer and the Lord. 

A husband and wife need to do more than run errands together.  They must gaze into one another’s eyes and speak sweet words of love.  They must truly be together—on a core level.  They must frequently share an embrace, a kiss, and make love with each other as God intended.  They must truly communicate with each other, and this involves both speaking and listening.  This is how marriages grow.  This is also how our relationship with God grows—when we take time to just be with Jesus.  Don’t just mutter a prayer to him throughout the day.  Share quiet time with Jesus.  Let Him hold you in His love.  Speak quiet words of worship and let Him respond with adoration. 

Practicing the presence of God can be an amazing way to spend your day—as long as it doesn’t become a way to procrastinate your prayer time.  Brother Lawrence would be horrified to find that his spiritual realization has given countless people an excuse to not have a daily time of prayer.   In The Living Reminder, Henri J.M. Nouwen says that believers should…

walk in [God’s] presence as Abraham did.  To walk in the presence of the Lord means to move forward in life in such a way that all our desires, thoughts, and actions are constantly guided by him.  When we walk in the Lord’s presence everything we see, hear, touch, or taste reminds us of him.  This is what is meant by a prayerful life.  It is not a life in which we say many prayers, but a life in which nothing, absolutely nothing, is done, said, or understood independently of him who is the origin and purpose of our existence.

            Walking in God’s presence also means sitting in God’s presence.  Praying without ceasing does not preclude your daily quiet time with Jesus.  As spouses must spend exclusive time together addition to all the errands, so the Christian must devote exclusive time to Jesus in addition to “ceaseless prayer” throughout the day.  The believer’s cry of relationship with the Lord should echo the words of Michael W. Smith’s song, “Draw Me Close.”

Draw me close to you
Never let me go
I lay it all down again
To hear you say that I'm your friend
You are my desire
No one else will do
Cause nothing else can take your place
To feel the warmth of your embrace
Help me find the way
Bring me back to you

You're all I want
You're all I've ever needed
You're all I want
Help me know you are near