Job CXXXVII

 People hear what they want to hear. God hears the cry of your heart. He does not filter your words through some bias or interpret them to mean something they were not intended to. He will not nitpick at you or belittle you for using the past tense when a present tense participle would have been the proper way of phrasing it, nor will He reject you for your lack of eloquence when crying out to Him.

If one of my children is crying out for help, I would not fail to answer because they did not address me in Old World English or because their tone was a bit too shrieky. They cry, and I run to their aid because they are in need of my help, protection, or comfort. The words they use, the volume thereof, or the cadence they appropriate is irrelevant in such situations. Yes, dear, I see you fell and scraped your knee, but you did not address me as sire; therefore, I did not respond to your cries. Knowest though better for next time? Verily, I hope you’ve learned your lesson. 

The only rule that applies when we’re crying out to God is that we do so with a sincere heart. Every other pet peeve men have thought up is just that, a man-made preference, and not a Biblical dictate or mandate. Leave others to their dead gods, to pray in a specific direction at specific times with specific wording and genuflection. Let them ring bells, light incense, or roll their eyes into the back of their skulls until only the whites show. You approach God in spirit and in truth, cry out to Him with a sincere heart, and know that He hears you.   

Men read into things, situations, circumstances, the specific wording we use, and the inflection with which we use them, but God sees the situation for what it is and knows our hearts better than we ourselves know them. A loving father would not turn away his children because they cry too much or too little, because their posture is not rigid enough, or because their tone isn’t appropriately sorrowful. God is a loving father. Therefore, He will not turn you away due to irrelevant things men deem worthy of rejection.

Stand before Him as you are, without pretense or the attempt to put on a façade, and pour your heart out to Him. Acknowledge your frailty, your weakness, your battles, your wounds, your scars, your setbacks, and your inconsistency. Be honest with Him. He already knows it all anyway.

When we attempt to stand before God clothed in our righteousness, we make fools of ourselves. When we stand before God clothed in Christ, understanding that His sacrifice and not our abilities have reconciled us with Him, humility will be an ever-present companion.

Luke 18:9-14, “Also He spoke this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others: ‘Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other men – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I possess.’ And the tax collector, standing afar off, would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.”’

When we humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord, it is He who lifts us up. It’s not something we do on our own or something we talk ourselves into manifesting. There are situations where no amount of pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps will suffice, and the only remedy is to reach out, take His hand, and allow Him to do what He does, as He wills, when He wills. When you’re drowning and someone throws you a life preserver, you don’t complain that it’s the wrong color or that it doesn’t match your swimsuit. You grab it, cling to it, and show gratitude for having had your life saved from an untimely death.

Zophar heard what he wanted to hear in Job’s words. “You say my doctrine is pure, and I am clean in your eyes”, Zophar reminded Job, even though Job had never said those words. Zophar needed to make his point; he needed to defend his position, and if he had to twist the truth in order to fit his presuppositions, to him, it was a small price to pay if it meant being right.

Men see what they want to see. They hear what they want to hear, but God knows the truth of it since nothing is hidden from His eyes. There are even those who go out of their way looking for something they can object to, some twitch of the eye, or wave of a hand, or an out-of-place word that they can then magnify and point to as something legitimate rather than the ruminations of their contentious minds. If the same judgmental eye were to be turned on them, they would wilt and wither under its glare and demand that it stop, lest they crumble under its weight altogether.

No, I didn’t rub my eye because I’m Illuminati. I rubbed my eye because it was itching. I have allergies, and there’s pollen in the air. When we demand perfection of everyone around us but fail to apply the same standard to ourselves, all we are is pharisaical hypocrites who see ourselves in an undeserved light.

Some people have taken to calling themselves full-time heresy hunters, using it as an excuse for why they haven’t been looking in the mirror of the Word and dealing with the issues in their own lives. It’s far more rewarding to one’s ego to endlessly point out the shortcomings in others, whether real or perceived, than it is to deal with our own, but our primary duty is to ensure that we are working out our own salvation with fear and trembling before we dare to sit in judgment of everyone else, whether living or dead.

Matthew 7:2, “For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” 

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr. 

Posted on 14 March 2025 | 10:14 am