“Is not your fear of God your confidence, and the integrity of your ways your hope? “Job 4:6 (RSV).
Job, Chapter 4, is a conversation between Job and his friends. Job is wrestling with the question: can mortal man be right before God? His friends are trying to convince him that something is wrong with him and he must repent. But Job is deeply convinced that what is happening is not a result of some hidden sin in his life but has been allowed by God, who is above his circumstances.
What amazes me about the story of Job is how Satan is looking for someone to test. He asks God if he can test Job to get him to walk away from his faith. He takes everything he loves and cares about in his life, everything he has worked for and trusted, to get him to curse God. God has complete confidence in Job and says: “I know my son Job; he is faithful and upright, and he knows that his faith is not as a result of the favour and blessing that he has in his life.” Could we say that? Are we faithful to God because He has blessed us, or only when things are good? Or are we faithful because God is faithful no matter our circumstances? God is faithful regardless of our circumstances.
In verse 6, Job is questioned about his fear of the Lord and his integrity. Job has confidence that God is with him and that God is still faithful. His confidence has always been in a revelation of the fear of the Lord. The integrity of his life is his hope. These two things will now sustain him through this tragic season of testing.
When there are small cracks in our integrity (I hesitate even to use the word small because a crack is a crack, and it is dangerous and destructive no matter how small it is), we can fool ourselves into thinking that small things don’t matter, but they matter to God. They undermine our confidence in God and our faithfulness to Him. Lack of integrity makes us vulnerable prey to lies from the enemy, which reminds us that God is not faithful and that somehow, He is holding out on us or harming us.
We put cracks in our complete confidence in the Lord when we: Take shortcuts, are hypocritical, judgmental, are in scarcity or lack, focus on ourselves, complain, lack gratitude, imply something unkind about someone else, demonstrate behaviors opposite to love or choose death over life in our thoughts, words, actions, or attitudes. These cracks bring death into our lives, such as anger, frustration, gossip, backbiting, unforgiveness, addictions, numbing, entitlement, selfishness and selfish ambition, fear, doubt, shame, and pride. Separation from God ensues, and then we are fooled into believing that somehow God has abandoned us and that He has not been faithful to us, leading to even more brokenness.
When we live a life of hope in complete integrity and obedience in the fear of the Lord, we can have rock-solid confidence that God is with us, and we are with Him: Confidence that no matter what comes our way, God will use it for His ultimate glory and our good. God fully restored everything Job lost in an even greater measure. Yes, there will be suffering in this world, but we have great hope in the life and future that is being prepared for us.
Lord, I pray that I would be one in whom you have complete confidence in my faithfulness in you. My salvation is the only gift I will ever need. Even if I was cold, hungry, beaten, lost, alone, sick, broke, or rejected and persecuted, may I never deny your unfailing love and faithfulness to me. Lord, I desire above all things to truly understand the reverence, awe, and awesome fear of You. May my confidence lie in my unwavering walk of integrity and obedience in the fear of the Lord. Lord, forgive me for even the small ways I am hindering your full release on my life. I repent for every time I choose a lesser way and how that skews my view of who you are. Lord, instead, I want to walk in the complete provision of the better way of love every day and be confident in the fear of the Lord and my integrity to walk in it. In Jesus’ Name, I pray, Amen.
