Every time that I read God’s sightseeing tour of creation with his servant Job from Job 38 onward, I stand amazed. These chapters tell over and over how great and good God is. With his own hands He artfully formed the earth and dammed up the waters. He pours out rain over the earth aqnd provide food to all the animals of the field. Here, the Lord’s omnipotence and his endless love for his stunning creation shine brighter than the sun. Still, God also shows his rebellious servant how He is involved with his creation to the finest detail. All this causes Job to stop doubting whether God still cares, immediately.

God’s creative works tells over and over of his omnipotence! Just to be able to call the sun into existence was a phenomenal miracle. Did you know that the sun is about 1.6 million kilometers in diameter? Even though it is about 149 million kilometers from earth, it is responsible for the continued existence of all life on earth. The sun produces more energy in one second than humanity has ever used during our earthly existence. And then we learn from the astronomers that our sun is but one of the small stars of its kind in the universe. God, the Almighty, is behind all this. It is He who balances all the galaxies in the palm of his hand. It is He who rises far above time. Still, God is known as a merciful Father. It is He who is near, in Christ, to each one who calls on Him. It is about Him that John wrote in 1 John 3:1: “What marvelous love the Father has extended to us! Just look at it—we’re called children of God! That’s who we really are.”

Prayer Guideline

Read from Job 38 to the end of the book this week. Use it as a prayer guideline to create an awareness of the greatness and closeness of God.

The life of Joseph, the well-known bible figure of whom we read of in Genesis 38-50, was a complete mess for years. His strong moral values landed him in an Egyptian jail. He refused to have an extramarital affair with Potifar’s wife, and then she accused him of immorality. Potifar believed his wife and had Joseph locked up.

In jail, Joseph could easily have become a bitter young man. But he chose not to attach negative labels to his jail sentence. Joseph didn’t turn his back on God or start loudly complaining about how unfair He was. Joseph never became a self-appointed martyr. Everything but… He held on to God tightly, so much so that he enjoyed the respect of everyone in the prison. God was there with his servant who had to suffer so unfairly.

In Genesis 50:20, we hear how God used the suffering of Joseph to accomplish something good. Thousands of people were saved from famine. In short, even though Joseph did not understand the suffering he went through, he could later see how God was with him. He could see how God employed his bad circumstances for heavenly service to the advantage of an entire nation. Please learn from Joseph that suffering is not a sign that God has withdrawn Himself from you, or that He doesn’t care any more.

Listen closely: Your circumstances is never a measuring stick to determine how close or far God is from you. The only measuring stick for God’s distance from you is his Word. And if you are still wondering about his distance: go and read the official statement about Christ’s proximity to you in Matthew 28:20!

Prayer guideline

Meditate on the words of Jesus to his disciples shortly before his ascension in Matthew 28. Ask yourself if you have made this your own. Is it yours? Do you believe this? Contemplate this prayerfully through the course of the next week. This will cause you to put away all the measuring sticks that you use to determine God’s distance from you.

No two people on earth share the same fingerprints. But, did you know that our ‘eyeprints’ are equally unique? The developer of the Iris ID, John Daugmann of Cambridge University in England, already compared the ‘eyeprints’ of 30 million people. No one of them are the same. As if that is not enough, each of us has 23 pairs of chromosomes that can combine in 8,388,608 different ways. That shouts loudly that every one of us is unique.

However, not only our fingerprints and our eyes tell us that we are unique, valuable and special. God confirms it over and again in the bible. Just take Psalm 139:14 where David shouts how the Lord put us together in a wonderful way. We are the absolute climax — the magnun opus — of all God’s works here on earth. Maybe that is why Vincent van Gogh once said that Christ is the greatest Artist ever. However, according to van Gogh He works with living pieces of art instead of dead statues.

Why do we sometimes talk so destructively about ourselves if we are so uniquely sewn together? Why do we so eagerly focus on our shortcomings? Notice for a change that there’s only one like you in the whole universe. Let your one and only life produce continuous heavenly music for God. Make good sounds with those few or many chances and opportunities that you have to your disposal. Make every moment matter… because it does!

Prayer guideline

Be thankful before God about the uniqueness of the whole creation.

It seems to me that safe people are as scarce as safe places. Who or what is a safe person? It is someone before whom you can open your heart wide. It is someone with whom you can be yourself without fearing that he/she will use it against you. A safe person will always protect your integrity in front of others — and enjoys speaking to God about you.

Shedding tears is a gift from God to wash our insides clean of hurt and pain. But our tears are not safe with everyone. Some see them as a sign of weakness, or an inability to stare life bravely in the eyes. How wonderful that the Lord made some people so free that they are safe havens for those around them. With these folks you can be fragile and broken. And even sensitive. In their presence you find healing for your tired soul.

Do you know safe people? Cherish them! Thank God over and over for them. By the way, are you someone like this? Not? Then get Romans 12 down — learn how to mourn with those who are mourning and to rejoice with those who are rejoicing. There you will also learn how to associate with the humble and to dry the tears of others. Practice that daily and become safe for others.

Prayer guideline

Ask the Lord to develop you into a safe haven. Ask Him to change you for the sake of others.

While we think we can life on our own for God, like a brave spiritual Rambo, we are missing the point. In 1 Corinthians 12:13, Paul puts it clearly that the one Spirit made us into one body, the living Church or Body of Christ. That is why we are now accountable to others with our lives. Subsequently, many Christians today have mentors that keep them accountable for how the live.

Recently, I encountered a more handy term than “accountability”… in the form of “editability”. Derived from “edit”, it refers to the work of book editors. They ensure that their writers succeed. No one knows the publishers of the world-renowned authors, but these publishers guide their authors behind the scenes and enable them to write their bestsellers!

A good Christian mentor acts precisely like a publisher. It is someone who guides me to enable me to reach my goal in God’s kingdom. An effective mentor therefore needs to do more than merely keep me accountable for what I did wrong or right the day before yesterday. He or she especially needs to guide me to proactively serve the Lord and other people on the road ahead. Leonard Sweet writes suitably: “Accountability is designed to prevent you from doing bad. Editability is designed to help you do good. The real question is not “Are you accountable?” but rather “Are you editable?”“

Each of us needs to be in a healthy growth-oriented relationship with someone else that “edits” us to make the right impact for God. We need each others’ advice, shaping, intercessory prayer, exhortation, and encouragement. Please become a “publisher” for someone that is busy writing a good story to God’s honor with his/her life. Oh, and if you don’t have someone like this in your own life, it’s about time!

Prayer guidelines

Ponder the meaning of being a part of the Body of Christ. Read 1 Corinthians 12-14 prayerfully. Ask the Lord to open up your life, and make it transparent. Ask Him to send a wise fellow believer into your life that can “edit” you to his honor. Maybe you need to be such a mentor for someone else? Pray about this.

“Does one’s brain sweat if you think hard?” someone asked the other day on Twitter. Well, to think takes energy. Our brains have relatively little energy available… about 40kw’s worth. That’s why our minds’ are the original energy savers! When it can take shortcuts without thinking, it does exactly that! Your mind has many “routes”, “scenarios” and “maps” stored in your sub-conscious about experiences from your past. You don’t even remember these, but your mind uses those exact maps to determine your behavior… unless you deliberately intervene!

If we don’t continually establish new God-honoring thought patterns in our minds, we will be the victims of our own stereotype, or even of destructive thoughts. Remember, your brain is an energy saver. It uses those experiences, emotions, and thought patterns from the past to lead you here and now. It can keep you captive for a lifetime if you don’t deliberately choose daily WHAT and HOW you want think. Paul calls us in Ephesians 4 not to be held up with weak minds. He knows all too well that our thought patterns can degenerate to useless, addictive routines. In the same breath, he writes in 2 Corinthians 10 that we need to take our thoughts captive. Every one of them. Those thought patterns that have to do with anger, suspicion, bitterness, and immorality need to be unmasked time and again and handed over to God. Such thoughts need to be refused free access to our minds.

We are not slaves, at the fate of our thoughts. We can and need to intervene. How? Again, by choosing to arrest negative thoughts immediately and to refocus our thoughts on Christ. If not, our thoughts will continually program us in the wrong direction.

Prayer guideline

This week, use the Psalms as your prayer route, and pray psalms of praise afterward in your own words.