If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Luke 11:13. 

As for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me. Micah 7:7. 

In reading our chapter, Job 22, I did what I have been doing while reading Job. I started with a few lines from the last chapter. Have you never questioned those who travel? Have you paid no regard to their accounts – that the wicked are spared from the day of calamity, that they are delivered from the day of wrath? Who denounces their conduct to their face? Who repays them for what they have done? Job 21:29-31. Job asked those questions and now in our chapter, Eliphaz answers Job. Can a man be of benefit to God? Can even a wise person benefit him? What pleasure would it give the Almighty if you were righteous? What would he gain if your ways were blameless? v. 2, 3. Have you ever asked those questions? Eliphaz goes on to ascribe to Job actions that are heartless: You gave no water to the weary and you withheld food from the hungry…And you sent widows away empty-handed and broke the strength of the fatherless…v. 7, 9. Did Job? Will you keep to the path that the wicked have trod? They were carried off before their time, their foundations washed away by a flood. v. 16. Is there a difference? A reason we are saved? Eliphaz goes on to pronounce good that sounds wonderful…Submit to God and be at peace with him; in this way prosperity will come to you. v. 21. Does prosperity come to us when we submit to God? There are many other beautiful statements of what will happen to one who turns to God in this chapter…too good to be true? 

A lot of words. Words from the particular perspectives of individual people recorded for us to ponder. And yet we read those words and invariably turn to our own thoughts springing from our own individual life experiences. How can we not? Does God respect our individual life experiences? I have been blessed to have known a childhood secure in my parents love and protection and from that sprang a love and appreciation of beauty and truth distinct from the emptiness of lies and the barrenness of no beauty. I see a distinction: God…Father, Son, Spirit – and a world where truth is ever changing to fit the times we live in. Beauty overdone in bright lights and shiny things. Love of self, love of money and power at any cost. 

I wait for God and find His peace in His Presence with me. I find the comfort of His love and care that I remember and look forward to always. I know the encouragement found in His word of hope and the life He has shared with me. He will never leave us or forsake us and nothing will separate us from His Love that does not change. What are we being saved for? How about what are we being saved from! Look around at our world today and in any age of men. Do we need saving? Do our neighbors…the nations? What are we being saved for? Our life lived with our Creator God who loves us and is faithful. Faithful. Almighty God. You can take His hand for He is always with us loving us faithfully through our life experiences that will lead us to see the differences with Him and without Him when we choose to turn away. Have you turned away? Turn back. He’s here. He loves you faithfully. I have made choices in my life that He respected and allowed that were not good for me. When I called out to Him, He was there. Always. A difference I am being saved for.