God Stepped In
Written by Felicia McKnight
10/5/16
Job 33:26-28 MSG
““Or, you may fall on your knees and pray—to God’s delight! You’ll see God’s smile and celebrate, finding yourself set right with God. You’ll sing God’s praises to everyone you meet, testifying, ‘I messed up my life— and let me tell you, it wasn’t worth it. But God stepped in and saved me from certain death. I’m alive again! Once more I see the light!’”
In today’s scripture passage Job is in a place of reflection and gratitude. If you have ever been at rock bottom or tangled in a web of your own poor choices and mistakes, then you can relate. Have you ever been in a place where your life was completely messed up because of your own wrong choice? Maybe it was due to connecting with the wrong person, a lifestyle of sin, or just constantly making bad decisions. As a result you found yourself dealing with the consequences and as Job described life became messed up for you. Maybe you are in that place today.
“This poor man called, and the Lord heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them.” (Psalm 34:6-7 NIV)
The good news is when you find yourself in this predicament help is closer than it appears. If you truly desire God’s deliverance, then you have to completely surrender your life and your own will to God. You have to seek His forgiveness and allow Him to step in and transform your heart and mind. You have to allow God to be Lord over every area of your life. We see from the lives of people like Job, Abraham, and David that God can turn mess into miracles.
God’s grace, His covering, and His protection covers His children when you live a yielded life to Him. When you humble yourself before God He will step in and save you from your own destructive ways. God is a deliverer. He desires the abundant life for you. God sent Jesus on the cross to pay for your sins and pave the way for righteous living. Whatever you are going through today stop and seek God’s will for your life. You may still have to endure consequences of your actions, but the good news is God’s forgiveness and grace covers you and leads you from a destructive path to a path of righteousness.
“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry;” (Psalm 34:15 NIV)
Be blessed and be encouraged.
Prayer
Lord, thank you for your grace. Thank you that when we cry out to you for help and to save us from our own destructive ways that you hear our cry. Lord we praise you that when we surrender to you, that you will deliver us. Help, every person reading this who finds themselves making the same mistakes and poor choices over and over again. Help those who are at rock bottom or headed there because of their own sin. Lord, give them the wisdom to know their wrong doings and the strength to turn from them. Strengthen each person and help them to know when to walk away from people and circumstances. Lord, I pray that they will not conform to the patterns of this world, but that their minds will be renewed to know your good and perfect will for their lives. Father, send peace, healing, protection, provision, wisdom, deliverance, and salvation to all those who stand in need. In Jesus name. Amen
Feevotionals 
Since God stepped in, namely Jesus, we should listen to HIM.
If you have ears to hear Jesus,
you should know which commandment is the Most Important One to HIM, in his own words. No, it’s not “love’……
Poem – What is love?
Two men came to Jesus
With different motivations.
They asked Him the same question
Relevant to all the nations:
Which is the Most Important?
The answer was the same.
Jesus did not manipulate
He was not there to play a game.
“Love the Lord your God” said Jesus
as He quoted from The Law –
to fulfill and not abolish
was His purpose, full of awe.
Jesus did not make all Scripture
Into one new great commandment.
He summarized The Law and Prophets
“First and Greatest” and “The Second.”
The Love of God is higher
Than the love of any man.
Receive from God, give back to God-
Then to others, that’s His plan.
The Love of God involves much more
Than simply “love your fellow man.”
Worship, trust, and pray to God,
and obey Him – that’s His plan
To worship and pray to neighbors,
Whoever they may be,
Or trust and obey our enemies
Would be idolatry.
The love of God is first and greatest,
And the love of man is second.
“All we need is love” are words
of dead Beetles on the pavement.
“The entire law is summed up in a single command”
are not the words of Jesus our Salvation.
It’s false teaching of Paul the Pharisee
an “accuser of our brethren.”
“Love” without God is Satan’s word through Paul
in his chapter to the Corinthians.
“I will show you the most excellent way”
is the road to eternal perdition.
Where is God in Paul’s chapter on love?
Nowhere in view of the eye.
Paul sings about himself like a Mexican Mariachi
“I, I, I, I.”
Jesus is The Most Excellent Way
Not the words of a Pharisee.
The words of Jesus are very clear.
Jesus said, “You must follow ME.”
He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
Parable of the House Painters
A homeowner called his friend, who was a painting contractor. “Friend, I want to hire you and your team to paint my house and my garage. Paint the house first, and I’ll stay in the garage until you’re done. Then when the paint is dry, I’ll move back into the house, and you can paint the garage.”
The painting contractor hired a new foreman named Paul, and gave him the homeowner’s instructions. (Paul insisted that all the workers show respect for him by addressing him as “Boss Paul.”) Paul called the team of painters together and told them:
“Boys, we need to paint this garage and house. The quicker we do it, the more profitable it is for us. So get to work! Since the garage is smaller, we can finish that quicker. Then those who finished the garage can go help the others finish the house.”
One worker objected: “But Boss Paul, those were not the owner’s instructions! We are supposed to paint the house first. Only after the house is finished and the paint is dry can we go and paint the garage.”
Paul replied: “I’m Boss, you work for me, and you do as I say. We are painters, and we paint. We don’t have time for debates about ‘which one is first’. We need to get to work applying that paint to the garage and house as quick as we can. Which owner would be upset if we finished early? The job is to paint the garage and house – what difference does it make ‘which one is first’”?
“It makes a big difference to the owner,” the worker objected. To which Paul replied, “you’re fired.” Paul then took his team of painters, and started painting the garage and the house.
When the homeowner returned in the evening, he was furious. He had nowhere to sleep, and had to go stay in a hotel for several days. The homeowner’s friend, the painting contractor, apologized, and explained:
“I hired a new foreman named Paul, but that was a huge mistake. He ignored your instructions that I passed on to him. You don’t know him, and I’ve just barely met him.
To be extremely polite, I could say that Paul ‘says some things which are difficult to understand.’ To be more direct, I could say Paul talks like an arrogant megalomaniac with a messiah complex, proclaiming; ‘I am not under the law’ but yet making up his own laws as he goes along, that everyone else has to obey. Paul said: ‘I became your father…. therefore I urge you to imitate me,’ and ‘I have become all things to all men.’ Paul thinks he’s Boss, and doesn’t need to listen to your instructions that I gave him.”
In Matthew 22 and Mark 12, Jesus identified two commandments, saying one of them is the first and greatest most important one. Which one is it? The one in Deuteronomy 6:4-5, or the one in Leviticus 19:18 ?