Job CCXXXIII

 Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him? And what profit do we have if we pray to Him? Perhaps the two most myopic questions ever strung together that reveal the ignorance of the wicked as to who God is, as well as their inability to see beyond this present life. There was no eternal perspective, no consideration for what comes after the handful of years we are given on the earth, because the moment was all that mattered, and for the moment, they were rich and in need of nothing.

To answer the first question, the Almighty is the Almighty. It’s in the name, and had the wicked not been so wrapped up in their wickedness, a moment’s worth of introspection would have solved this riddle for them. Simply defined, almighty means complete power, omnipotence, and sovereignty over all things great and small, physical or intangible, flesh or spirit, of this earth or beyond the stars. The Almighty, therefore, is the omnipotent One, the sovereign One, the all-powerful One, the singularity in the entirety of the universe who possesses complete power and dominion.

The answer to the second question hinges on perspective. What profit do we have if we pray to Him? As far as extra shekels in your coffers, visible on a profit and loss balance sheet, none. If the things of this earth are what your existence revolves around, if every morning upon waking and every night before going to sleep, your only purpose is to increase your possessions, you will inevitably see no profit in forming a relationship with the Almighty.

Sooner or later, though, even the richest among us come to realize that riches are an illusion, that unless you burn it, the green paper with dead men’s faces on it gives no warmth, and all the money in the world, stacked up to the moon and back, will not extend their life by one millisecond. No matter how vast the fortune, no matter how layered the offshore accounts, once you breathe your last, it’s no longer yours, left behind for family and friends to bicker and fight over.

Throughout human history, everyone who thought they could take it with them was wrong. Everyone who tried failed. In the end, all anyone gets is a pine box and a hole in the ground. If they were well known, a few more people may show up to say their farewells, but the one in the box wouldn’t know either way, so what does it matter?

You can’t help but feel sadness and pity for those whose sole focus is the temporal things of this earth, with no time to spare a thought for eternity. It’s as though, millennia later, Jesus was answering the question with a question of his own when He asked, “For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his soul?”

Far too many spend their days obsessing over things they can’t control, or pursuits so irrelevant in the context of eternity as to make one roll their eyes and face palm. This is what you’re consumed by: an extra 2% in your 401 (k)? This is the pinnacle of what you chose to concern yourself with instead of establishing, broadening, and deepening a relationship with the Almighty?

If you want to eat, you have to work. We earn our daily bread with the sweat of our brow, some sweating more than others. That said, whenever it comes to prioritizing and structuring our lives, the kingdom of God must come first. Between an extra hour of overtime and an hour spent in prayer, our inclination must be to choose the time in prayer because we know it will have a greater benefit than the fifteen bucks minus the FICA withholdings.

When we consistently prioritize God over the things of this earth, we soon come to realize that the things we thought we needed and therefore sacrificed our time for, we didn’t really need, for whatever joy, security, peace, or comfort they may have provided, pale in comparison to the presence of God in our lives.

Matthew 6:33-34, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.”

These were the words of Jesus, not taken out of context, not reimagined, not finely chopped and reassembled to make them mean something they were never intended to mean, but as the conclusion of a discourse focused on not worrying about what you will wear, or what you will eat, because your heavenly Father is well aware of your earthly needs and will provide for them.

There is a difference between want and need, and while God will provide for our needs, if He concludes that providing our wants will cripple our spiritual man, stunt our spiritual growth, or cause us to shift our focus from Him to the things of this earth, for our own good, our request for the wants of life will be refused and declined.

As the story goes, a rich man was walking the city with his entourage in tow, and noticed a beggar on the side of the road. In the hope of impressing his friends with his brilliance, he approached the beggar and asked if he believed in God. The beggar answered that he did, and that he prayed to God every day, to which the rich man smirked and said, “Your prayers do not seem to be working, given your current lot. However, I am feeling generous, so if you can answer one question to my satisfaction, I will give you five gold coins for your trouble.”

The beggar nodded his head in agreement, and the rich man posed his question: “I have all I’ll ever need or want. I am rich and will be so for the rest of my days. Name me one thing I do not have that you believe I should pray for, given what I’ve told you.”

Without missing a beat, the beggar looked the rich man in the eyes and said, “Humility.”

The rich man reached into his pocket, pulled out five gold coins, and handed them to the beggar without another word.

Any man who believes he has nothing left to pray and entreat God for is a fool, and those who trust in the arm of the flesh will be brought to ruin.

1 Timothy 6:17-19, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold of eternal life.”

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.