But he knows the way that I take; when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold. My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread. Job 23:10-12 NIV
One day each of us will stand before the judgement seat of God. How will that day go for you? If you want to come forth as gold, Job gives us a very simple recipe for success.
- Follow His ways closely.
- Don’t turn aside from His way for any reason.
- Do exactly what He says.
- Treasure His Word and realize you need it even more than you need food.
Life is full of choices. Sometimes we find ourselves wrestling with multiple options, but there’s really only one question we need to answer when faced with a decision. What choice best lines up with God’s Word? Once you’ve committed your life to Christ, every other decision should revert back to that question. We trip up when we begin to evaluate our options using any other criteria.
I have to believe the reason God declared Job the most righteous man on earth is because He had determined early on that he would always do what God desired. There’s a very appealing simplicity in that. Once we’ve settled into that way of thinking we no longer need to wrestle with doing the right thing, that’s already a given, we simply need to determine what the right thing is. And once you get a good handle on the Word of God, it’s not usually difficult to figure out what He desires. If you’ve been studying the Bible any length of time your angst is not with figuring out the right thing to do, but rather deciding if your going to follow through with doing it.
Have you decided never to deviate from God’s ways or is departing from His commands an option you entertain? When you stand before God at the end of your life will you be able to say, like Job, “My feet have closely followed his steps; I have kept to his way without turning aside. I have not departed from the commands of his lips; I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread?” Can you say that today?