Read through the Bible in 2 Years: Job 31

In this chapter Job makes his final defense against his friend’s accusations. Again and again he says “If I have” – aka, “Trust me! I haven’t!”

Today I was struck by the fact that mankind’s propensities toward sin hasn’t changed all that much since Job was alive several thousand years ago. We still lust after women and wealth. We still lie and deceive. We still cheat the poor and forsake the widow and orphan.

I was also thinking about how often we only think about the sin of things that we do, sins of “commission,” but Job also talks about the things that we left undone, sins of “omission.” Have you ever considered the fact that not helping the poor, the outcast, the widow, the fatherless, might actually be a sin?

I wonder if we as the body of Christ have turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to the poor. Have we abdicated our responsibility to help the needy, expecting the local, state, and national government to do what the church has been charged to do?

Lord, please give us wisdom day after day in hope to be Your hands and feet here on earth until we’re taken to heaven. Help us to see those areas where we are falling short, sinning in what we are failing to do. May we not hide behind our church attendance or time spent in Your Word, thinking that gives us some kind of a free pass to not actually do the works that You’ve called us to do. Make us willing ambassadors for Your kingdom, both in what we do and what we don’t do. Keep us free from the love of money. Keep our hearts free from lust and jealousy and envy and deceit. Make us neighbor-lovers and Savior-lovers. Make us conduits of the grace that we have abundantly received from You. In the Almighty Name of Jesus we pray, Amen.