Can I just say that I love this book!! Hubby and I have discussed this author before and I know that I do not hold to some of the things he writes about but as for this book it is an very realistic view of our world and prayer.
Mr. Yancey is very candid with how he has looked at prayer and how he has began his journey through this book on prayer.
i have already marked the book to death and I am only on the third chapter!! Here is a picture to prove it!
Now I must Confess that not every page looks like this but it is close.
I will be sharing excerpts that strike me as I read through but as you can tell by the picture above I cannot share them all!
I will try to stick to one or two thoughts. I don’t want to be accused of copy-right infringement after all!
So here is thought provoker #1
Prayer helps correct myopia (nearsightedness), calling to mind a perspective I daily forget. I keep reversing roles, thinking of ways in which God should serve me, rather than vice versa. As god fiercely reminded Job, the Lord of the universe has many things to manageande in the midst of my self pityI would do dwell to contemplate for a momentGod’s own point of view.
Where were you when i laid the foundations of the earth’s foundation?Tell me if you understand who marked off it’s dimensions? Surely you know. (god’s questioning of Job in the book of Job)
When, after shrugging aside all his caustic theological queries God enlightened hapless Job, the poor man crumbled. I’m Sorry Job said in effect. I had no idea what i was asking. Job did not receive a single answer to his probing questions, a fact that no longer seemed to matter.
At this point let me throw in my insights into this. As of the last few months Job was on my reading radar..ok so it was More like March of this year! I am ashamed to say that even though I am a Bible college grad and a studier of God’s word. I did not understand why Job was wrong. I have read this book so many times and yet I was still confused. Just as I believe that a person who is unsaved can read the Bible many times and understand the Bible and believe it is true and yet is not saved until The Holy Spirit moves that person to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. There is more to salvation than believing that Jesus Christ is a true person. I believe that be So I can say that God hid this understanding until just the right moment. He did so I believe because only a few weeks later i found myself in a teaching position in a church that we were canidating at and someone had the wrong perspective of the book of Job…ironically the same view I had held not a month earlier….
Anyway that being said Job questioned god about why was he “punished” in such a way..(he lost everything) Job didn’t realize that he didn’t need to know and that God was in control the whole time. Job was blameless for a time until he began elevating himself to the level og God, claiming perfection in so many words, blameless. He forgot he was a son of Adam…he would ALWAYS deal with the consequences of sin…he was not blameless!
So many times we Act blameless when in all reality the whole point was to show that Job was a humble servant of God…Job failed. though he did not curse God though he did not turn his back on God the outcome was still a failure. He humbled himself when all the things in his life were hunky dory (as my mom used to say)
So my question is when we are talking to god about the things that are going on in our lives do we claim that “we do not deserve this” Or do we humbly say to God “now what, where do we go from here?” Because the last time I checked we all deserve the wages of sin..we are all sinners. We deserve death. It is by the grace of God that we can claim life no matter what happens on this earth!
And i will leave you with thought provoker #2 And i will have no commentary on this quote!
Grace, like water, descends to the lowest part. Streams of mercy flow. I begin with God, who bears primary responsibility of what happens on earth,and ask what part i can play in God’s workon earth. “Let justice roll like a river, righteousness like a never failing stream” cried the prohet Will I stand by the bank or jump into the stream?
