Grace Under Fire

Job 22:21-23New International Version (NIV)

21 “Submit to God and be at peace with him;
    in this way prosperity will come to you.
22 Accept instruction from his mouth
    and lay up his words in your heart.
23 If you return to the Almighty, you will be restored."

These verses fit my life perfectly right now. I feel like I am being refined under fire but at the same time is giving Grace. I have also been giving Grace, which could be refining me too. God is showing me that if I would just be at peace with Him, then I would also be at peace with everything else. When you are following God at peace, it is more likely that you will get what you want if that is what God wants for you.

The fire under Grace part is verse 22 for me because that in itself can be hard for anyone. The words "accept" and "lay" are probably two of the hardest words in the Bible. When those words come up, they either follow up with an action you need to do for God or even for other people. We, the sinful and selfish people we are, find it hard to do things that don't have to do with us. 

"Accept" means: "to agree or consent to; accede to." Verse 22 says that we should agree to the instruction form His mouth. If we agree on the instructions and obey them, then we can for sure have peace, even when we think following them is the hard way. We should take Gods instructions as a way of life and go into action with them. It is advice that we should take, not ideas. 

"Lay" means: "to cause to be in a particular state or condition." Verse 22 also says that we should put His words on our heart. The particular state or condition that God's words are at is on our hearts. If the Words are laid out on our hearts, then we are more likely to remember and do them, instead of just forgetting about them. When we take the time to lay them down and think about them plus let them soak in, the more we are willing to do what God's Words say, which puts us in a particular condition that is towards God and not this world. 

"Restored" means: "to put back to a former place, or to a former position, rank, etc." When we accept and lay God's words on our hearts, it should return us to God, where we were in the 1st place. It puts us back in our former place, position, and rank. All 3 actually. which is strange but true. Then God will restore us with everything that we need to get through the next things in our lives. He will give us peace and whatever else we need for the next big thing. I like that God restores us because He knows that we will mess up, forget, or even both. It just shows how much He loves us and doesn't want to forget about us. 

I think in a way that restored also means "Grace". God gives us grace when we mess up on things. He give us Grace when we need a do over. He gives us grace so we can learn how to do it right the next time. He gives us grace to get through the fires of life. I think it would be more meaningful if verse 23 said something like this, "If you return to the Almighty, you will be given Grace." I think that is my summary of that verse. My rewrite of it. It just shows more meaningful and poetic. Don't you think so?