Your Target

10.20.2009

Job 7:20 20 “Have I sinned? What have I done to You, O watcher of men?

Why have You set me as Your target, so that I am a burden to myself?”

New American Standard Bible

I’m not sure anyone can fully explain the plight of Job – he’s set up as what appears to be a guinea pig of sorts, and the book bearing his name is the story of the experiment in which he found himself.

Job looks at his life and his sorrows and asks, “What’d I do!?” Good question, Job. Sometimes in life I think we ask the same question and get the same response: the silence of Heaven. The silence leads us to surmise and to try to explain to ourselves the reason for all the stuff that’s going on in our lives; we feel like we are God’s target. Bummer of a birthmark, Hal…

Whatever the reason (or lack of reason) for the things in my life, perhaps the greatest work of my faith is to trust God even when it feels like I am the target and He is the Archer. I admit the sin in my life and I try to do something about it. But sometimes it feels like I haven’t done a thing and still my circumstances go to crap. Maybe it’s age or wisdom or simply the fatigue of the friction of life, but there is a continual drive in me to come back to the Lord every morning and renew my devotion. No matter how bad things are (or get) I’ve come to a place where I refuse to accept that somehow I’ve made God mad and He’s now paying me back by making me His target. If I am His target at least He’s paying attention to me…

Father in Heaven,

You have called me to believe, to obey and to be faithful. Fill me with the Holy Spirit this day to do all three – I pray in Jesus’ Name, amen.