How “R” you, today?

I bet at least once a day you are asked: How are you, today? Depending on how you are actually feeling and whose asking, the response can be funny like these: 

• “What do you want? (But, like, lightly... so as not to be rude.)” 

• “I'd say I'm at least a 7 out of 10.”

• “Good enough!”

• “How dare you! (Act shocked for an even better response.)”

My favorite is: “At minding my own business? Better than most people.” Whoa! Don’t get me wrong. It’s a good question depending on the purpose behind it. Does the “asking” person, really care or is it just empty air?  God has been known to ask that question this way: How “R” you, today?” The R is a series of “R” questions embedded in the one question posed to His man Job:

• Revelation: What have I revealed to you why I am God and you are not?

• Relationship based on Repentance: Based on what I have revealed to you about who I am and who you are not, are you willing to repent?

• Restoration:  Because I want a relationship with you based on uncompromised love, and you want a real relationship with me through repentance, I can restore whatever you have loss in our relationship discovery journey.

Here is the backstory: In the first chapter of Job, God holds his morning briefing in heaven with His angels. Satan is in attendance and tells God that he has been walking around considering His creation. God asked him “How is my servant Job—a righteous and blameless man?” Satan asserts that Job fears God because of God’s blessings on him and that if you take away his stuff, Job will curse God. So, He allows Satan to test Job, to take away all that he has, including his health, but he can’t touch Job’s soul.  The test is on. Job loses everything. The rest of the Book details a series of four friends of Job who hammer him with the question: What did you do to God to deserve this devastating judgment? Job replies to each accusation that he is innocent, and that it is God who has done wrong. What?

Enter God in chapters 38-41 to set things straight in regards to the question--How “R” you, really Job?”—with these three Rs:

Revelation: What have I revealed to you why I am God, and you are not?

In chapters 38-41, God reveals to Job in a whirlwind, His sovereignty over all heavenly and earthy bodies; God’s power over all creation, and God’s power in His creatures only He can control. Here is a sampling of God’s revelations to Job:

3"Now gird up your loins like a man, And I will ask you, and you instruct Me! 4"Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell [Me], if you have understanding, 7When the morning stars sang together And all the sons of God shouted for joy?  Job 38: 3,4,7

Relationship based on Repentance: Based on what I have revealed to you about who I am and who you are not, are you willing to repent? In chapter, Job is almost speechless regarding the sovereignty, power, and knowledge of who God really is, not just a Blesser, but a Blessing to be in relationship with considering the kind of God He is. Job has just one word to say: I repent.

5"I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear; But now my eye sees You; 6Therefore I retract, And I repent in dust and ashes." Job 42:5,6

Job has changed. How do we know. He has forgiven his well-meaning, wayward friends who misrepresented God to him. Job forgives them, accepts their offerings, and prays to God to withhold His fierce judgment on them.

9So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite [and] Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job. Job 42:9

Restoration: Finally, because I, God, want a relationship with you based on uncompromised love, and you want a real relationship with me through repentance, I can restore whatever you have loss in our relationship discovery journey. Job forgave his friends. God forgave Job and accepted him. Now it was time for God to restore to Job because he now knows when it comes to God, it’s not about reward, but relationship. There can be no restoration without forgiveness.

10The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold. Job 42:10

Not only did Job get back his stuff, he got back ten children and a long life of 140 years.

So back to our original question when God asked the question: How “R” you, today? Consider the three Rs in your answer. What has God revealed to you in your life that leads you to say: “If it had not been for the Lord on my side where would I be.”  Second, where do you need to repent—change—in your relationship with God, of one that is based on who He is and not what He has blessed you with? Finally, ask God to restore to you what you have loss in your relationship journey with him. What relationship—not just stuff—you’d like restored. Be willing to forgive as you have been forgiven.

If you can connect with the three Rs, I’d say to the question­— “How are you today?”—you’re doing pretty dang good, like Job.