Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Job 21:7-15 (NIV)
7 Why do the wicked live on, growing old and increasing in power? 8 They see their children established around them, their offspring before their eyes. 9 Their homes are safe and free from fear; the rod of God is not on them. 10 Their bulls never fail to breed; their cows calve and do not miscarry. 11 They send forth their children as a flock; their little ones dance about. 12 They sing to the music of timbrel and lyre; they make merry to the sound of the pipe. 13 They spend their years in prosperity and go down to the grave in peace. 14 Yet they say to God, ‘Leave us alone! We have no desire to know your ways. 15 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?’
The Living-Dead—The end of those who trust in their living instead of the Living God
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I pray that when things go easy for me, that I don’t get lax and overconfident in myself, that I don’t take good things for granted, or take credit for my own successes. Lord, I don’t like challenges or pain, but I understand that when I struggle, it gives me opportunities to learn how to trust You, how to submit to You, how to grow in my faith and how to build a closer relationship with You. To trust in myself is shallow and will lead to death. To trust in You will lead to Your ultimate strength and eternal life. Thank You for loving me enough to teach, guide and stretch me. Help me to follow Your will and to please You with my response to adversity. Amen.