Do You Have Job’s Fainting Heart? Should You?
When a believer has the profound, heart-felt desire to see God, like Job did, it demonstrates how valuable God is. People and things that matter to us make an emotional impression on us. And who is of more worth, objectively speaking, than God? What is of more worth, objectively speaking, than the gospel?
In my corner of Reformed Christianity we’re not particularly adept at expressing our emotions. Perhaps it can be chalked up to our Dutch immigrant roots; maybe to our ecclesiastical sub-culture. Whatever the case may be, we’re not given to putting ourselves out there emotionally. This certainly guards us against the sentimental excesses seen in some circles. But does this steely stoicism line us up completely with Scripture?
Job 19:25-27 is one passage which might suggest otherwise. Many people are familiar with this passage because it’s used in Handel’s Messiah. Oftentimes you’ll hear it at funerals. I always read it at graveside services and it provides a lot of comfort. It does so because it confidently speaks of the hope of the resurrection.
As you believe this resurrection gospel, which is fulfilled in Jesus, it shouldn’t leave you unaffected. It deeply impacted Job and that’s evident from the last line: “My heart faints within me!” Those words are pregnant with emotion. Job had a deep yearning to see God with his own eyes in his glorified resurrection body.
Can you relate to that? Does your heart “faint within you” when you hear about what the gospel promises in the resurrection of the dead? One could reasonably expect such a response, because of the nature of these truths. God gives us profoundly encouraging news here. But what if you can’t relate? What if these kinds of truths don’t touch your heart like they did Job? I have more good news for you.
First, our salvation doesn’t depend on our emotions and what the gospel does to us emotionally. Our salvation entirely depends on God’s free grace in Christ.
You Might also like
-
Police Officer Resigns After Being Told not to Post “Offensive” Views on Biblical Marriage
It is true that what Kersey wrote would likely be offensive to most homosexuals. That doesn’t mean there was anything wrong with him saying it. There was nothing hateful about Kersey’s words, certainly nothing about the inherent value of a person or anything wishing them ill will. The claim that what he said is the same as saying a racial slur or cursing all homosexuals is preposterous. Disagreement is not hate.
The former officer, 19 year-old Jacob Kersey, began working for the Port Wentworth Police Department near Savannah, Georgia, in May 2021 and was reportedly doing well — until his Facebook post caused him to be placed on administrative leave. It’s not the first time social media posts have resulted in problems for police officers, but the content of this post was radically different. While some officers have been fired for posting racist, hateful, or obscene content, Kersey’s post was stating orthodox Christian beliefs.
Kersey spoke with John Wesley Reid about his experience:
God designed marriage. Marriage refers to Christ and the church. That’s why there is no such thing as homosexual marriage.
The following day, he received a call from his supervisor letting him know that he had received a complaint regarding the post and told Kersey to remove it. Kersey refused, but was later contacted by Lt. Justin Hardy, who said that the Port Wentworth Police Department did not want to be held liable in a “use of force” interaction with an LGBT person. Kersey continued to refuse to remove the post.
The next day he was called by Maj. Lee Sherrod and told he was being placed on administrative leave while the department launched an investigation.
Kersey says that Police Chief Matt Libby told him what he posted was the “same thing as saying the N-word and ‘[expletive] all those homosexuals.’”
Kersey also said that Capt. Nathan Jentzen told him Kersey’s free speech “was limited due to my position as … a police officer.”
After a week of paid administrative leave, Kersey’s active status was restored. In a letter dated January 13, Maj. Sherrod, the department’s human resource director, stated that after a review of Kersey’s known social media accounts, including a Christian podcast he had run for years, “we did not find sufficient evidence to establish a violation of any policies.”
However, the letter continued, the views he had shared “would likely be deemed offensive to protected classes” and could raise “reasonable concerns” about his ability to serve the LGBT community “objectively.” Any failure on his part to be seen as objective could cause him to be terminated.
While he would not be fired, Kersey says he was told to not post anything that could be deemed offensive on social media. Kersey says he was told that he could post Scripture but could not post his “interpretation or opinion on Scripture if it was deemed offensive.”
Read More
Related Posts: -
Giving Thanks for the Goodness of God
The goodness of God should stir us to grateful worship. For, in God, “infinite cheerfulness attends infinite goodness” (to quote Charnock one more time). “Who will show us some good?” the Psalmist asks. The answer is the Lord who shines the light of his face upon us. “You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound” (Ps. 4:6-7). The God of infinite cheerfulness and infinite goodness is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and the heavenly Father of all those who call upon him in the name of his Son.
One of the first things we learn about God is that he is good. “God is great, God is good, let us thank him for our food.” Many of us grew up hearing this prayer at the dinner table. It’s good theology—simple and true.
It also highlights an attribute of God that is surprisingly hard to define. We think we know what it means for God to be good, until we try to explain it. Then we usually start listing other attributes (God is loving, God is gracious, God is kind) or resort to platitudes (God helps us). It takes some reflection to understand all that we mean—or should mean—when we confess that God is good.
Defining Our Terms
Before coming to a simple definition of what God’s goodness is, we must say what it is not.
By goodness we do not mean that God is relatively good. If we say, “That hotdog is good,” we mean, “Of all the hotdogs out there, this is one of the better ones.” This is not what God is like. God is not good because he compares favorably to other gods. There is none like the LORD; he alone is God (Ps. 86:8–10).
By goodness we do not mean that God is morally exemplary or ethically upright. Of course, that’s gloriously true. But “goodness” should not be confused with “holiness.”
Nor, by goodness, do we mean that God is merciful. We see in Exodus 33 that these two things—goodness and mercy—cannot be separated, but strictly speaking, God’s goodness extends further than his mercy. Mercy may be the ultimate expression of divine goodness, but it is not the only expression. God shows mercy to some, but his goodness extends to all.
So, what do we mean by God’s goodness? Divine goodness is the overflowing bounty of God by which he communicates blessing to his creation and to his creatures. God’s goodness is the opposite of harshness and cruelty. To experience divine goodness is to enjoy the sweetness, friendliness, benevolence, and generosity of God.
Goodness is the broader category encompassing several of God’s moral attributes. His goodness toward those in misery we call mercy. His goodness to forebear with those deserving judgment we call patience. And his goodness to those who are guilty we call grace.
Three Aspects of God’s Goodness
Theologians speak of God’s goodness as necessary, voluntary, and communicative.
God’s goodness is necessary in that God cannot be other than completely, perfectly, and unalterably good. Goodness is what God does, but it is also who he is. Good and upright is the LORD (Ps. 25:8). Good are you LORD, and you do good (Ps. 119:68). Jesus told the rich young man, “No one is good except God alone” (Mark 10:18). Of course, Jesus didn’t mean that human beings are incapable of doing good things or possessing relative goodness. Jesus meant that only God in himself is originally, infinitely, and immutably good. God is good in the highest degree. His goodness can never increase nor decrease. He is all good and unmixedly good. He is like the sun—all light in whom there is no darkness. That’s what we mean when we say God is necessarily good.
God’s goodness is also voluntary. This may seem to contradict the previous point, but it does not. God’s eternal and intrinsic goodness is necessary, but his will to make known this goodness to others is voluntary. In other words, it was necessary that whatever God would create would be good, but it was not necessary that God create in the first place. As Stephen Charnock puts it in The Existence and Attributes of God, “God is necessarily good in his nature, but free in his communications of it.” God did not have to go outside of himself to be good, nor did he have to create the universe in order to be conscious of his own Trinitarian goodness. The fact that God willed to display divine goodness is a further expression of that goodness.
This leads to the third point: God’s goodness is communicative. Whatever good we have or whatever good we enjoy is because God has willed for his goodness to be known and enjoyed. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the Father of lights (James 1:17). Food is good, marriage is good, friendship is good, health is good, peace is good, prosperity is good, work is good, recreation is good, rest is good—because God is good. He is a benevolent Creator, making his sun rise on the evil and on the good, sending rain on the just and on the unjust (Matt. 5:45). Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, every excellent thing is owing to the overflowing goodness of God (Phil 4:8). God communicates his goodness not with miserliness, but with great delight. God loves to make his goodness known. The supply of his goodness is inexhaustible, and the sharing of it knows no end.
Three Areas Where God Displays His Goodness
If the nature of God’s goodness is threefold, so is the manifestation of his goodness. We see the display of God’s goodness chiefly in three areas: in creation, in providence, and in redemption.
First, we see God’s goodness in creation.
Think of the constant refrain throughout the creation week: “And God saw that it was good.” We come to the climax of the sixth day, with the events of Genesis 2 already having taken place—with the creation of the man, and then the creation of the woman, fit for the man—and then we read: “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good” (Gen. 1:31).
Read More
Related Posts: -
How Can I Pray Biblical Prayers for My Suffering Friend?
A few years ago, a friend of mine died of cancer. He was a young dad with immense faith in Jesus, and some of his final words were a request to tell everyone he maintained his belief that God was good. But in the last days of my friend’s life, a visitor came into his hospice room and prayed over his unconscious body, saying repeatedly that there would be complete healing if my friend just had more faith.
That prayer was both wrong and hurtful. But what was the right way to pray in that situation? Is there a way to pray for relief from suffering while still acknowledging God’s ultimate sovereignty? How do we keep praying when God doesn’t answer in ways we desperately want?
Answers to those questions primarily reside in Scripture. And Scripture serves as the foundation for author and Bible teacher Nancy Guthrie’s new book I’m Praying for You: 40 Days of Praying the Bible for Someone Who is Suffering. The book is set up as a daily reading from the Bible, a brief devotional, and a prayer based on God’s Word.
As a mother who lost two young children, Guthrie writes with the wisdom of experience. The prayers she offers in I’m Praying for You can be roughly broken into three categories of requests we can pray for those who are suffering: glory to God, open hearts, and changed circumstances.
Glory to God
When the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray, his response in the Lord’s Prayer begins by glorifying God, both praising his name and acknowledging the sovereignty of his will. I’m Praying for You starts the same way. The first prayer in the book asks not that suffering will end but that through suffering “the work of God will be displayed in your life.”
Part of the beauty of our faith is the freedom we have to find purpose and meaning outside of ourselves and our immediate circumstances in bringing glory and praise to God. One of the greatest strengths of Guthrie’s book is how she helps readers pray about more than immediate circumstances, using Scripture to seek God’s glory. On Day 25, the prayer focuses on how suffering can “bring honor to the name of Jesus.” On Day 28, the focus is how “the genuineness of your faith will result in glory to Jesus.”
I’m Praying for You also includes prayers of submission to God’s will, which is a form of praise that can glorify God by acknowledging he knows and controls more than we do.
Read More