Sermon 35, Job 9:16-22
Two quick things about prayer from today’s sermon.
One, honesty. Calvin preaches that “flowery language” may amaze all that hear the prayer but will “have no effect on God”. And “men will get nowhere by engaging in rhetoric, as many do, intoxicated with their own words…thinking that they…dazzle”.
I've often thought about the tone we adopt in prayer and the language we use. Especially when praying out loud. Truth is that I don’t really use the language of glory, majesty, honor, righteousness very much everyday and so when I use those words in prayer I worry that I am immediately being dishonest. Praying how I think others want me to pray and not earnestly.
Later, Calvin says “Paul says that when a man of faith prays earnestly to the Lord he does not know what is taking place.” This is reassuring. I don’t often know how to say things in prayer, but I shouldn’t let that stop me!
Two, Calvin says that it’s Jobs perspective that “if he [Job] receives what he asks for, God has had pity on him and answered him.” And, so it’s true that we only perceive God answering prayer when he gives us what we want. But, to paraphrase Stephen Colbert, what if what we want is stupid?
The sermon ends with this: “we must apply our efforts until God withdraws from us all battles. But the main assault he wants us to apply ourselves to is giving him glory while he seemingly intends to thunder down upon us.”
Glorifying God means being humble. Yesterday I connected the promotion of the natural world in the Bible as a tool to promote humility within myself. Today I was thinking about how, becoming humble, isn’t necessarily about thinking less of yourself but rather thinking more of God. “More” in terms of quantity and quality.