Our Daily Bread May 27
Why Me?/ By:Mart DeHaan Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?
Job 7:20
Today's Scripture & Insight:
Job 7:17–21 (NIV):
17 “What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention,
18 that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?
19 Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant?
20 If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you who sees everything we do? Why have you made me your target? Have I become a burden to you?
21 Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more.”
The Book of Odds says that one in a million people are struck by lightning. It also says that one in 25,000 experiences a medical condition called “broken heart syndrome” in the face of overwhelming shock or loss. In page after page the odds of experiencing specific problems pile up without answering: What if we’re the one?
Job defied all odds. God said of him, “There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil” (Job 1:8). Yet Job was chosen to suffer a series of losses that defied all odds. Of all people on earth, Job had reason to beg for an answer. It’s all there for us to read in chapter after chapter of his desperate struggle to understand, “Why me?”
Job’s story gives us a way of responding to the mystery of unexplained pain and evil. By describing the suffering and confusion of one of God’s best examples of goodness and mercy (ch. 25), we gain an alternative to the inflexible rule of sowing and reaping (4:7–8). By providing a backstory of satanic mayhem (ch. 1) and an afterword (42:7–17) from the God who would one day allow His Son to bear our sins, the story of Job gives us reason to live by faith rather than sight.
Today’s Hynms:
Submission
God Way Is The Best Way
Scripture to Respond:
Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV)
8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Hebrews 5:7-9 (NIV)
7 During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. 8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered 9 and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him
Reflection:
People who follow God faithfully can also suddenly become seriously sick, meet accidents, lose their dear ones, get persecuted and betrayed, or bear incomprehensible suffering. In such circumstances, perhaps we can never understand why me.
In our distress do we still believe in God’s transcendence, that everything has His good purpose and follow the submission example of Jesus who said such prayer, “Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but yours be done.”?
Prayer:
Creator God, life-giving Lord, Father of Jesus Christ, when I suffer beyond my understanding, please help me follow Jesus Christ and keep trusting and submitting to You.
Wong Wai Tung (Chief executive officer of The Great Wall Education Foundation) & Sam Chow (Administrative officer of The Great Wall Education Foundation) Translated by Esther Leung
