Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? (Job 1:9) There are many who say, “Who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord!” You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. (Ps. 4:6-8)
Dear heavenly Father, these Scriptures raise the important question of our motivation for worshipping and serving you. Everything within me wants to repudiate Satan’s accusation that the only reason I love you is because you buy our affections with “the good life” (Job 1:9-11).
Though I am so grateful for all the creature comforts I enjoy in life, (and am probably too dependent on), nevertheless, my love for you isn’t rooted in your being a 24/7 dispenser of “blessings” or a celestial masseur. Your name is Abba Father, not Sugar Daddy. I love you because you are God, and there is no other.
I love you because you first loved me and gave Jesus as a sacrifice of atonement and propitiation for my sins. I love you because you bought me back—you redeemed my life, from sin and death by the perfect life of Jesus. I love you in response to your great love lavished on us in the gospel—the only love that is better than life, the only love that will never let go of us.
Though many are asking, “Who can show us any good? Where is your God now? How can you say God is good? Where was your God when . . . ? How could your God possibly . . . ? Why doesn’t your God . . . ?” yet, Lord, I declare with the Psalmist, “I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.”
Indeed, Father, there’s no safer place to be than in Christ—in life or in death. Because you’ve hidden our lives in Jesus, not a hair can fall from our heads, not a breath can be taken from our lungs, and not a beat can be missed by our hearts, apart from your sovereign purposes and pleasure. And should I die in the next hour, my heart will forever proclaim, “My God has done all things well.” So very Amen I pray, with gratitude and humility, in Jesus’ most worthy name.
