1/24/15- God speaks in Various Ways

19“Or someone may be chastened on a bed of pain

with constant distress in their bones,

20so that their body finds food repulsive

and their soul loathes the choicest meal.

21Their flesh wastes away to nothing,

and their bones, once hidden, now stick out.

22They draw near to the pit,

and their life to the messengers of death.^c

23Yet if there is an angel at their side,

a messenger, one out of a thousand,

sent to tell them how to be upright,

Thoughts: Job 33- Words from Elihu to Job that summarize. The verses from yesterday point out that God speaks through dreams or sometimes in the voice of conscience.  Here is a reminder of God speaking through pain.  Someone said that pain is the alarmclock of the soul.  God tries to wake us up to Himself through pain.  Many times people wake up to God and see what is really important through sickness or sadness.  Sometimes we have to be flat on our back to see that work is not the most important thing in life.  Sometimes our pain teaches us to pray out to the Lord for help.  

Prayer: Help me to hear you speak to me- even through pain.  

1/23/15- God Speaks in Dreams

14For God does speak—now one way, now another—

though no one perceives it.

15In a dream, in a vision of the night,

when deep sleep falls on people

as they slumber in their beds,

16he may speak in their ears

and terrify them with warnings,

17to turn them from wrongdoing

and keep them from pride,

18to preserve them from the pit,

their lives from perishing by the sword. (Job 33)

Thoughts: God has spoken to people in dreams.  He spoke to Jacob at Jacob's ladder at Penuel.  He spoke to King Nebuchadnezzar in a dream.  But dreams are not always clear.  Nebuchadnezzar had to have an interpreter as did the Pharaoh when Joseph interpreted his dream.  Some wonder if a dream is from God or just from the worries of life as scripture mentions. Psychologists often point out that worry and past concerns play in different kinds of dreams.   Dreams are part of what theologians call "general revelation."  But God speaks clearer through scripture and Jesus Christ. 

Prayer: Help me, Lord, to hear your voice speaking to my life.