Attitude Adjustments

Job 41 (NIV)41 ^[a]“Can you pull in Leviathan with a fishhook
or tie down its tongue with a rope?
² Can you put a cord through its nose
or pierce its jaw with a hook?
³ Will it keep begging you for mercy?
Will it speak to you with gentle words?
⁴ Will it make an agreement with you
for you to take it as your slave for life?
⁵ Can you make a pet of it like a bird
or put it on a leash for the young women in your house?
⁶ Will traders barter for it?
Will they divide it up among the merchants?
⁷ Can you fill its hide with harpoons
or its head with fishing spears?
⁸ If you lay a hand on it,
you will remember the struggle and never do it again!
⁹ Any hope of subduing it is false;
the mere sight of it is overpowering.
¹⁰ No one is fierce enough to rouse it.
Who then is able to stand against me?
¹¹ Who has a claim against me that I must pay?
Everything under heaven belongs to me.

How does this passage hit you? Did you find yourself cheering the Lord on, or were you secretly indignant at such sarcasm? I confess that a year ago, I had a very, very wrong attitude in my heart.

Upon reading this, I experienced an unfamiliar feeling: God’s Word made me angry. It’s very hard to explain, and hopefully someone can try to understand, how completely wounded I was that God would ever speak like this. Not that any human could indeed harness Leviathan, but I was indignant at the apparent lack of love and respect shown in His words. As I perceived it, it was rude and possibly even out of line with His loving nature.

Now, it sounds silly to share on a Christian blog, but that was truly where my heart was. All of a sudden, everything made sense to me. Everything in the past year has been divinely commissioned to work on softening my heart to truly know Him. How could I ever have a real faith and hope and love when my heart of hearts was so bitterly closed to Him?

I recently read the same thing again, and praise God, my attitude has made a full 180. I actually had an opposite response to the first time. I found myself praising Him for what He did, is doing and will do in the future, and acknowledging my complete dependence upon Him.

I’ve just been pondering the enormity of the change in my heart. It certainly has been a dramatic change. Not that I’m going to stop growing since I’ve gotten this far, but God, if you can accomplish such a turnaround in a year, I can’t imagine what you might do if it please you to give me another year of life. God, I lay my life down before you and humbly turn every day over to you. THANK YOU so much for all you have been working in me so that I can have a correct understanding of You and who You are. Thank you for giving me another day on your earth so that I might become closer to you. Thank you for pulling me out of false “truths” and lifting me up into THE truth, Jesus.

Is there anything weighing on your heart about God or his Word that you are having trouble accepting? “Vent vertically” and share these questions and difficulties with the One who made you. He won’t ever punish someone who asks for wisdom (James 1).  Remember that He delights in you and wants to change you. Pray that He can work on your heart, and in His time, he will make you beautiful (Ecc 3:11).