Job 35:6-7 “If you sin, how does that affect him?
If your sins are many, what does that do to him?
If you are righteous, what do you give to him,
or what does he receive from your hand?”

This is a point that we tend to forget sometimes, and forgetting it blunts our appreciation of God’s grace. Simply put, God doesn’t need us. He created us, just as He created the rest of the universe, and He chooses to love us, but that is because of His choice and not out of any logical necessity. We are so prone to think, or at least feel, that God owes us something, when as Elihu points out here, nothing could be further from the truth. That should make us all the more grateful for all that He gives us, but all too often it doesn’t. We develop a sense of entitlement for what we already have and more, and that more than anything else robs us of the joy, peace, and satisfaction God intends for us. Job Himself got it right at the beginning of all his trials: “The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the Name of the Lord be praised.” (Job 1:21) What multiplied his suffering was not just his friends accusing him falsely, it was his feeling that “I deserve better than this.” We can expect God to act consistently with His character, but that’s not the same as expecting Him to be a “sugar daddy.” Gratitude, and the obedience that should come from it, are the keys to walking in the abundance that the Bible makes clear God intends for us. However, we are to evaluate that abundance from His perspective and not from a strictly materialistic one.

God has been so incredibly gracious toward me that I couldn’t begin to express it all. However, from the world’s perspective my life has been less than spectacular. Praise God, I’m not here to be a spectacle for the world! I am here to develop and grow in a deepening relationship with my Creator to prepare me to spend eternity with Him, for His pleasure and glory. At the start that was His choice, not mine, but by His grace He enabled me to respond to His love and choose to follow Him. As Jesus said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit – fruit that will last.” (John 15:16) I can’t give God anything He hasn’t given me or enabled me to do, so the least I can do is be faithful with what He has placed in my hands. By my choice I can offer Him “a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess His Name.” (Hebrews 13:15)

Father, thank You for growing me in my appreciation of Your grace. Thank You for carrying me through all You allow me to experience. Help me be an increasingly open conduit for Your grace and love to flow to those around me, so that they too may turn to You in gratitude and obedience, for Your pleasure and glory. Thank You. Praise God!