eDevotionals & Announcements

Today's eDevotional

for Thursday November 20, 2008

Text for the Day -- Job 16:1-5, 16-17
Then Job answered:
I have heard many such things;
miserable comforters are you all.
Have windy words no limit?
Or what provokes you that you keep on talking?
I also could talk as you do,
if you were in my place;
I could join words together against you,
and shake my head at you.
I could encourage you with my mouth,
and the solace of my lips would assuage your pain.
My face is red with weeping,
and deep darkness is on my eyelids,
though there is no violence in my hands,
and my prayer is pure.

Devotional
Job's friends are convinced that Job did something wrong so that God had brought this judgment upon him. Job tires of their words and continues to put forward his innocence - "There is no violence in my hands, and my prayer is pure." Job is right on that point. He has done nothing wrong. Tragedy is not necessarily a judgment of God for things done wrong.

Prayer
Keep me alert to your workings in my life, Lord. Amen

Richard Beckmen, executive editor of eDevotionals and Announcements is a Lutheran pastor and writes about prayer and spirituality. He is author of A Beginners Guide to Prayer, Praying for Wholeness and Healing, and has developed a daily devotional program for married couples.

Scripture quotation is from the NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible, copyright 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.