Sermon 24, Job 6:8-14
Yesterday I wrote about how I find prayer difficult. Today’s sermon is nearly all about prayer. This is prompted by Job’s response to Eliphaz which, in these verses, involves Job crying out to God for death and expressing disappointment in his friends.
As usual, Calvin is blunt which aids his clarity. Calvin’s instruction on prayer, through this sermon, is remarkable to me. Calvin asks “How are we to pray to him?” In his answer, two things really stick out to me.
Firstly, and I’ll just quote Calvin:
- “We are not to ask for anything which is not in accord with his will.” “
- “…our requests must always be in conformity with what God has promised us and what he allows us to ask for.”
- “It is intolerable arrogance on the part of a mortal man to subject to want to subject God’s will to his own.”
- “..before praying, let us consider seriously what God has promised us or permitted us to do.”
So, in short, (a) I shouldn’t just ask for stuff, and, more seriously, (b) I need to know what God’s promises are and keep aligned. My prayers should be that I keep aligned with his promises, I.e. his plan. This is actionable, I just need to make note of his promises.
Secondly, and this one is so on point, there is advice that speaks to my “other people problem” (OPP). Just to recap, my OPP is that I can be doing great, feeling great, but then I leave the house and interact with other people and my day get’s worse, I forget myself and I become a person that I later, when I come to my senses, dislike. Calvin’s sermon here is motivated by Job’s disappointment in Eliphaz. For Calvin, at this moment in the book, Eliphaz serves as Job’s “other people”. So what does Calvin say to help with my OPP, he writes this ”I must realize I am not dealing with men but with God.”. Through Calvin, God has even given me the gift of a specific prayer this morning. Here it is from Sermon 24, page 287:
“Lord, you see how that person is only trying to bring me to despair. His purpose is to make me fail and fall away completely. May it please you to receive me in mercy, and may I be aware that everything I have to bear does not come from men but from you alone, for even though men are imprudently at work in this, or even maliciously or deceitfully or unreasonably, the fact is that nothing happens apart from your will, for your will is good and just and for my salvation.”
So, new mindset. I don’t have an OPP. Everything that happens I have to see through the lens of my relationship with God. In every interaction or exchange my relationship with God is the primary thing that I should be thinking about. This is a really good actionable point that I hope I can maintain.