Law of Attraction in original form
As the most godly man on earth during his day, I’m sure that Job encountered people who thought his piety was a pile of baloney.
You know how it is.
You are profoundly grateful for the blessings in your life, realizing that many other people are just as nice and hard-working as you but don’t have the family you have, the health you have, the stuff you have and the hope you have.
You know that you are enjoying the fruits of God’s grace.
But every now and then, someone comes along who disputes the idea of God’s grace and claims that you’re just lucky or that you have good Karma.
If such a person has a bunch of stuff, he or she will sometimes act as if they are better than others and that wealth and popularity gravitated toward them because they deserved it.
Increasingly, the vanity minded are citing the so-called Law of Attraction as the catalyst for their creature comfort existence.
You’ve seen the infomercial advertising. Perhaps you even thought about buying one of the books or DVDs.
Yes, having stuff is nice.
But at what price?
Amazing, isn’t it? Those who dispute the existence of a Creator God — despite the the lack of a logical alternative for the origin of order before the Big Bang — are the same people who attribute their enrichment to inner chants of “I deserve for myself. I want. Others will serve me. I deserve for myself. I want. Others will serve me….”
The inner chants of one heart changing the flow of wealth and adoration in the world around them? Boy, that sure sounds like presumption of divine power.
No surprise there, of course. The Law of Attraction is a form of self-deification.
It’s much better to trust the Law of the Harvest.
Whereas the Law of Attraction says, “I deserve for myself. I want. Others will serve me,” the Law of the Harvest says, “I serve others. I wait. God will sustain me.”
The Law of Attraction focuses on self.
The Law of the Harvest focuses on God.
Yes, Job had been incredibly wealthy.
But’s that not why he served God.
Instead, Job served God because he understood who He was — the sovereign, holy Creator and Ruler of the universe.
“Though He slay me, still I will serve Him,” Job said.
Wow.
Job knew that his identity and true comfort was not rooted in the flesh but in his faith.
Faith in that which would never fail — his heavenly Father.
SO many people see the divine call to faith as checking a box so that they can get stuff from God.
Even loads of Christians live as if they believe this. Far too many media preachers rely on this magic wand in order to reach market share goals.
How sad.
Faith that truly honors God is that which loves Him and serves Him in the absence of stuff from God.
This kind of faith adores Jehovah because of who He is, not because of stuff received.
This is the kind of faith to which I aspire.
I pray that it is the kind of faith to which you also also aspire.
Why this topic today?
In Job 21:15, Job cites a rhetorical question I’m sure that he had heard many times during his faith-sharing efforts over the years. It’s a rhetorical question that you and I have likewise heard many times.
“Who is the Almighty, that we should serve him? What would we gain by praying to him?”
These two questions so often turn workplace Christians into spiritual jello because they are unprepared to answer them.
I’m sure that Job had good answers.
I’m also glad that Job understood, according to the balance of this book, that blindness to the source of blessing represented a blindness to the only path for deliverance from eternal destruction.
Dear friend, you’d do a wonderful thing for the Kingdom, for yourself and for the spiritually blind people around you if you prepared biblical, brief and personalized answers to the two questions above.
As you do so, you’re evangelistic influence with unsaved people will grow.
God will smile.
And that will be very good.
As always, I love you
Martin
