#7. Job 11-15 | We Reap What We Sow... Right?
There is a theme that runs through the book of Job that his friends believe: you reap what you sow. Is this biblical and is it always true? Listen to gain clarity and wisdom!
Today's Scripture: Job 11-15
Verses Referenced:
Various verses from Job 11, 12, 13
Galatians 6:1-10
Find our free Bible reading plan at www.entrustedministries.com/podcast or click here.
Transcript
Welcome to the Dwelling Place
from Entrusted Ministries.
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:I'm Stephanie Hit Cox, and we're going
through the Bible chronologically.
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:We're in the middle of job right
now, and you can find our free
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:Bible reading resources on our
podcast page on our website, which
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:I've linked in the show notes.
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:If you've already listened, then please
leave a review so that other moms can find
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:encouragement from God's word as well.
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:Today as we continue looking at Job
in chapters 11 through 15, we'll see
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:Job defend His righteousness While not
claiming he's perfect, he maintains that
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:if he were in a court, no one would be
able to convict him of a crime worthy
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:of the suffering that he's experiencing.
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:Still, his friends continue accusing
him, saying, this is how the world works.
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:You sin and you suffer consequences.
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:You do good and you're blessed.
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:This is often referred to as
the law of sowing and reaping,
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:and we'll talk more about that
after I read God's word over you.
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:And of course, we'll end in prayer.
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:So far, the neite kicks off
the accusations in chapter 11.
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:This is even a more targeted
attack than the first two friends.
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:Zohar tells job God is unsearchable.
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:How can you claim to understand
his ways and then reiterates?
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:This is obviously a
result of your own sin.
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:Zohar needs to apply that
reasoning to himself.
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:If God is so unsearchable,
why does Zohar think that?
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:He knows why Job is suffering.
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:In chapter 12, job begins a powerful
defense, and I think that's incredibly
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:impressive because these are the, some of
the physical symptoms he's experiencing
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:he has oozing boils from head to toe.
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:His skin is decaying,
shriveling up and turning black.
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:He can't sleep.
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:He has heartbreaking
grief, severe itching.
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:His flesh is infested with dust and worms.
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:Some of his teeth are flying out.
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:He's in constant agony and pain
is losing weight and has a fever.
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:In chapter 12, job ban answers.
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:No doubt you are the people and
wisdom will die with you, but I
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:have understanding as well as you.
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:I am not inferior to you who does
not know such things as these.
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:He goes on to say that even the
animals can tell that the hand
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:of God has done this to him.
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:And then he rightly attributes
God with all wisdom.
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:Beginning in verse 13, with God
our wisdom and might, he has
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:counsel and understanding if he
tears down, none can rebuild.
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:If he shuts a man in, none can open.
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:If he withholds the waters, they dry up.
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:If he sends them out, they
overwhelm the land with him.
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:Our strength and sound wisdom, the
deceived and the deceiver are his.
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:He leads counselors away,
stripped, and judges.
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:He makes fools.
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:He looses the bonds of kings and
binds a waist cloth on their hips.
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:He leads priests, a waist stripped
and overthrows the mighty.
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:He deprives the speech of those
who are trusted and takes away
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:the discernment of the elders.
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:He pours contempt on princes and
looses the belt of the strong.
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:He uncovers the deep set of darkness
and brings deep darkness to light.
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:He makes nations great
and he destroys them.
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:He enlarges nations and leads them away.
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:He takes away understanding from the
chiefs of the people of the earth and
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:makes them wander in a trackless waste.
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:They grope in the dark without light, and
he makes them stagger like a drunken man.
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:Behold, my eye has seen all this.
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:My ear has hurt and
understood it, what you know.
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:I also know I am not inferior to you,
but I would speak to the Almighty and
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:I desire to argue my case with God.
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:probably the most well known verse
in all of job, is Though he slay me.
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:I will hope in him.
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:Yet I will argue my waist to his face.
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:This will be my salvation.
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:Job isn't handling his
suffering perfectly.
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:But he's saying.
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:Even though he has no idea why
God is allowing this in his
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:life, he's going to trust him.
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:He knows that God is
sovereign and in control
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:What a lesson for us that we can choose
to submit to God's plans and God's
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:will for our lives over our own plans.
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:I think it's important that we confront
the reap what you sow mentality.
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:It is a biblical principle and it's just a
reality in life that often what you plant,
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:you get to harvest, you reap what you sow.
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:For those of you that would like a
refresher reaping is literally casting
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:seed on the ground or digging up
holes and planting the seed there.
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:And the sowing is the harvesting.
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:You wait until the plants and
the food has actually grown
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:and then you pick it whether by
hands or with a tool or machine.
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:When people say you reap what
you sow, often that's true.
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:You study for a test, you do well on it.
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:You exercise a need healthily.
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:You often maintain healthy weight.
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:You invest in great friendships.
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:And often it's returned,
but it's not always true.
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:I find that often my understanding
of scripture requires
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:that I balance two ideas,
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:and it requires that I embrace
an idea, but not to the exclusion
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:of another idea in scripture.
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:It reminds me of the time that my
junior high basketball coach told
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:me, Stephanie, you take everything
I say and act like it's gold.
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:And I'm sorry to say, but in my
know-it-all middle schooler mind, I
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:thought, then give me better advice.
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:But now I understand what he was saying.
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:I lacked the wisdom to know when
to apply what he was telling me.
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:And I don't wanna be the
same in looking to my Bible.
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:Here's why I think that the
law of sewing and reaping is
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:really motivating and helpful.
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:But it can be problematic if
we take it to an extreme first.
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:If we believe that we truly do
reap everything that we sow and
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:that every blessing we experience
is the work of our own hands.
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:Then we're taking credit for the
favor and blessings of God instead
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:of giving him the glory and praise.
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:It also means that when we see pain
in other people's lives, that we'll
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:look at them and think it was their
fault just as job's friends did.
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:But let's say we completely detach
ourselves from the responsibility of
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:planting so that we can harvest later.
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:What does that look like?
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:It can be a victim mentality
that thinks that everything that
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:happens is beyond our control.
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:It can be a lifetime track record
of rushing out the door, believing
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:that things just always happen to us.
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:It's the kid that refuses to study
because tests are always hard.
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:We need to believe that there are
benefits of persevering and diligence,
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:but we also need to know that
results aren't guaranteed and aren't
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:always the fruit of our actions.
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:This one strikes a little bit of a chord
for me right now as I'm fresh off a
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:super encouraging dentist appointment.
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:If I may borrow job's,
sarcastic tone for a moment,
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:I'm one of those people
that flosses religiously.
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:My husband, on the other hand,
probably has no idea where
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:our dental floss is right now.
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:Regardless.
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:When my husband goes to the dentist,
every time they tell him, keep up.
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:The good work looks great but
when I sit down in the chair,
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:it seems they're continually
recommending that I buy a new mouth.
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:Sometimes we don't reap what we sow.
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:But what if I embraced a
complete victim mentality that
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:said, none of this is my fault.
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:I'd give up flossing and brushing
and trying to eat healthy and throw
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:on the towel and it would get worse.
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:Instead of me pressing in
and saying, you know what?
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:This is actually an opportunity for me
to build faithfulness and character.
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:I have plenty of other
blessings the Lord's given me.
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:This is just a bit of a struggle in my
life and I can trust God to provide.
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:Even if I need to buy a new mouth, and
if I went to the other extreme, I might
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:take credit for the other blessings in
my life that were just the grace of God,
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:that I really didn't have to work for
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:Even if the result isn't
guaranteed, we wanna teach our kids.
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:That responsibility is good, and
diligence is often blessed while also
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:training them that sometimes hard
things happen on the earth and it's
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:not an excuse to completely slack off.
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:We also want them to be people
who have compassion toward
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:others when they're suffering.
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:You don't want your children driving by
someone homeless and thinking, well, I
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:wonder what they did to get there, or
judging others in difficult situations.
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:them to persevere in
character and diligence.
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:Since I knew that this thread of
reaping and sowing is woven throughout
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:scripture, I wanted to look up other
verses that talk about it, and one
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:of the key passages is Galatians six.
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:This is a letter Paul wrote in
the New Testament, and it can give
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:us a unique perspective when we
apply it to the situation of job.
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:It begins, brothers, if anyone is
caught in any transgression, you
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:who are spiritual should restore
him in a spirit of gentleness.
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:Keep watch on yourself.
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:Lest you two are tempted, bear one
another, burdens, and so fulfill the
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:law of Christ for if anyone thinks
he has something when he is nothing,
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:he deceives himself, but let each
one test his own work and then his
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:reason to boast will be in himself
alone and not, and his neighbor.
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:And a few verses later,
do not be deceived.
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:God is not mocked for whatever one
sows that will he also reap for
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:the one who sows to his own flesh.
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:Wolf from the flesh reap corruption, but
the one who sows to the spirit, wolf from
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:the spirit reap eternal life and let us
not grow weary of doing good for in due
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:season, we will reap if we do not give up.
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:This begins talking about if someone is
sinful, restore them In gentleness, we're
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:encouraged to carry each other's burdens.
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:Clearly, this is not what job's friends
were doing, so even if his great suffering
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:was the cause of some heinous sin that
he had committed, they should have
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:restored him in a different way instead
of accusing him in the midst of his pain.
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:Still, we are told that we will
reap what we sow, especially
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:in terms of eternal things.
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:And this is where I think
the law holds up most.
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:If you've been trying to share the
love of Christ with others and you're
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:not seeing fruit, don't give up.
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:Often there is fruit
produced that we can't see.
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:If you've been consistently parenting and
you're still not seeing benefits, whether
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:it's the kid that can't keep his draper
dry, or the reading that won't click,
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:or the constant battle for obedience.
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:Don't give up.
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:Don't fall into a victim
mentality, but also don't take
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:it all on your own shoulders.
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:Ask the Lord for help so that together
you can reap an eternal harvest
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:because that's the one that matters.
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:Lord God, we thank you that all
wisdom and understanding are with you.
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:We thank you that the fear of
you is the beginning of wisdom
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:and that you offer that to us.
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:We come before you asking that
even when we don't understand what
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:you're doing, that you would give us
clarity about how to obey your word
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:I pray we would faithfully reap for things
that matter for eternity in our families.
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:And in those you're calling us to love,
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:help us to faithfully train and
love our children, but not take
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:it all upon our own shoulders.
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:May we understand that you help us.
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:Lord, we thank you that if you
tear down, none can rebuild.
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:We also know that means what
you build, no one can tear down.
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:So we ask that you would build
something for your glory in
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:our homes and in our hearts.
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:We love you, Jesus.
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:In your name we pray, amen.
