Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: When the bottom drops out of life, when pain arrives uninvited and refuses to leave, we're tempted to ask, where is God in all of this? But what if suffering isn't the enemy we've always assumed it to be? What if our deepest hurts are actually clearing our vision, sharpening the things that matter most?

Guest (Female): Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll returns to the ancient story of Job to uncover priorities worth recommitting to, truths that hold firm even when everything else gives way. Chuck titled his message, A Recommitment to Things That Matter.

Chuck Swindoll: You'll remember we are in Job, and I'd like to read a few selected sections from the 27th and 28th chapters of Job. This is a great book of wisdom, a mysterious book in many ways. It leaves us hanging. This good man with such dreadful events that capsized his world and absolutely ruined his family life as his 10 children were taken. He was left with his wife, who herself became disillusioned and full of grief, and then with three friends to begin with, who gave him more of their minds than they could afford to lose.

And then once they were silenced, it's like an interlude. When you get to chapter 27, it's like a little interlude where he has time to think for himself. And this goes through 31, chapter 31. And then a fourth friend comes on the scene named Elihu, who again delivers what's on his mind. But I want to read just a few verses from Job 27 during this interlude, and then 28.

Verse one of Job 27: Then Job continued his discourse and said, "As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty, who has embittered my soul, for as long as life is in me and the breath of God is in my nostrils, my lips certainly will not speak unjustly, nor will my tongue mutter deceit. Far be it from me that I should declare you right. Until I die, I will not put away my integrity from me."

Verse 11: "I will instruct you in the power of God. What is with the Almighty, I will not conceal. Behold, all of you have seen it. Why then do you act foolishly?"

Cross the page to chapter 28, verse one: "Surely there is a mine for silver and a place where they refine gold. Iron is taken from the dust and copper is smelted from rock. Man puts an end to darkness, and to the farthest limit, he searches out the rock in gloom and deep shadow."

Verse five: "The earth, from it comes food, and underneath it is turned up as fire. Its rocks are the source of sapphires and its dust contains gold. The path no bird of prey knows, nor has the falcon's eye caught sight of it." And to find out what "it" refers to, verse 12: "Wisdom. But where can wisdom be found? Where is the place of understanding? Man does not know its value, nor is it found in the land of the living. The deep says it is not in me, and the sea says it is not with me."

Verse 20: "Where then does wisdom come from? And where is the place of understanding?" Verse 28: "And to man, He said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.'"

Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into Job's story, be sure to purchase a copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message, A Recommitment to Things That Matter.

Chuck Swindoll: Suffering helps us straighten out our priorities. Interestingly, the deeper the pain, often the clearer the vision and the more crisp are the priorities that come as a result of our hurting. On the first anniversary of 9/11, you like I read various testimonies of real people who were touched in a real way by that very real series of atrocities.

One surviving New York cop said, as a result of the atrocities, I no longer take our liberty for granted. A middle-aged widow whose husband was killed in the World Trade Center was quoted as saying, I now hug my children and always tell them I love them every morning and every night before we go to bed. One 48-year-old stockbroker admitted, I've decided to hold my business and my career much more loosely, and my family and friends have become much more important. By the way, he lost several friends and many clients on 9/11.

Suffering helps us straighten out our priorities. Pastor John Piper has written a book recently that I have come across. It's a book to fellow pastors. It's called, *Brothers, We Are Not Professionals*. I love the title. In it, he talks about suffering. Sometimes massive suffering comes so close to home that for a brief season the fog of our foolish security clears and we can see the sheer precipice of eternity one step away. He adds, those are good times for pastoral realism. Oh, how hollow much of our lives and ministry seem in those moments. The last thing we regret then is being less professional.

I think the same is true in the business world. I cannot recall ever hearing one once-successful professional person now struggling with cancer saying while lying on the bed, I wish I'd spent more time at the office. If Job could speak today, I think he would verify all of this. Stop and remember. Once his children were taken in that freak tornado, and his business went belly up as a result of a cataclysmic series of events, and his health went south covering his body with boils and a fever rose to dangerous levels, we never hear Job lamenting his missing the turn of a deal or longing for a fat contract that would enlarge his camel caravan business. Never once.

You don't think about that when you're where Job was. Suffering helps us straighten out our priorities. Therefore, I am now convinced suffering is not an enemy; it is a friend. Not until we embrace it as such will we glean its benefits. I think by now Job has begun to grasp some of the benefits. I think he now has been brought back to the things that he can recommit himself to. Interestingly, it didn't begin to happen until his friends stopped talking. They showed up, they blamed, they even spoke sarcastically with ridicule, they pointed fingers, they lectured, they unloaded a portion of their minds they couldn't afford to lose. And by the time they finally were quiet, it all began to distill in Job's mind to the point where he, in this little interlude, began to put things together.

I am learning in my years on this earth that one of the benefits of getting sick or going through times of suffering is that your focus is automatically vertical because you have to lie down. It's hard to look horizontal when you're lying flat on your back. Charles Spurgeon, the great pulpiteer of London for so many years, was a flashpoint of controversy and the newspapers and the periodicals took him on full bore. Normally he could hold his own, but there was one occasion when it began to get the best of him. All of us have our breaking point.

His wife noticed a depression that was beginning to come over him. She became concerned for him that he not lose his zeal and not miss the opportunities that were his even while going through such hard times. And so she pulled from a portion of the Beatitudes the section that reads, "Blessed are you when all people say all manner of evil against you. Bless and curse not. Great will be your reward." And she wrote it out by hand on a large piece of paper and she taped it on the ceiling of their bedroom. And he turned over in the morning, woke up, blinked his eyes, and read "Blessed are you..." He really focused vertically on what God was saying. I think that's such a wonderful, wonderful idea.

When we are flat on our back, the only way to look is up. And he stopped licking his wounds and, like Job, he began to be preoccupied with thoughts of God. For example, as you get into chapter 27 of Job, you will notice in the first 13 verses no less than 10 times he refers to the name of God. Verse two: "As God lives, who has taken away my right, and the Almighty." Verse three: "As long as life is in me and the breath of God is in my nostrils." Verse eight: "What is the hope of the godless when he is cut off, when God requires his life? Will God hear his cry when distress comes upon him? Will he take delight in the Almighty?" Another reference. "Will he call on God?" Verse 11: "I will instruct you in the power of God. What is with the Almighty I will not conceal." Again in verse 13: "This is the portion of a wicked man from God and the inheritance which tyrants receive from the Almighty." It is God, it is the Almighty, it is the Lord, it is God over and over and over again.

I count no less than 10 references in those first 13 verses, which gives me the first of five priorities that I think are worth remembering. Job's priorities as of this point in his life: Thinking God's thoughts is our highest goal. Thinking God's thoughts is our highest goal. I've sometimes referred to this as thinking theologically, thinking biblically. That's why I'm such a proponent of scripture memory. You can never think more acutely God's thoughts than when you quote back to Him or to life's situations God's word.

A.W. Tozer put it very wisely: What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. What do you think about when you think about God? I remember as a little boy thinking of God as the north wind, beard, cheeks puffed out, blowing the wind because that's what I saw on the old maps, the ancient maps that showed this presence blowing the wind of the sails of the ship and whatever.

Cynthia and I know a friend who lives in China and he sent us an email this past week. Because of his love for the Lord, I wasn't surprised to hear him say as he described things getting a little bit darker and a little more uneasy there. He adds, we are not at all afraid. In so many words he writes, my confidence in the sovereign hand of God keeps me from being afraid. What you think about God tells others a great deal about you.

What do you think about God? Do you see Him as the one who gives breath in your nostrils, the very giver of life? Do you see Him as the one who will call all into judgment someday? Do you see Him as the Almighty? Do you acknowledge His power as greater than any power that you would ever witness on this earth? It makes all the difference in the world in how you view life. Think of Job's situation. He is bankrupt, he is childless, he is friendless, his body is covered with boils, he's living with a high fever, intense pain. He is misunderstood, he is blamed, he is rejected. How in the world is he going to go on? His view of God keeps him going, and not what others are telling him. He recommits himself to things that matter. In a swirl of humanistic thinking, which he is given by the three friends, Eliphaz and Bildad and Zophar, he's turned that off and he is now focused on the things of God.

I love that kind of thinking. In fact, he says because he is so focused, he will not pad the record, he will not speak deceitfully, he will not tell them what is not true. That brings us to the second. Go back to verse three: "As long as life is in me and the breath of God is in my nostrils, my lips certainly will not speak unjustly, nor will my tongue mutter deceit. Far be it from me that I should declare you right. Until I die, I will not put away my integrity from me."

Second priority: Walking in integrity is the only way to live. The first, thinking God's thoughts is our highest goal. The second, walking in integrity is the only way to live. He won't skate, he won't fake it, he won't deceive them, he will not lie, he will tell them the truth. One of the most refreshing and reassuring kind of people to meet are those who have gained control of their tongues. You meet one about every decade. It's the last thing that seems to get under control. I think it's the strongest muscle in our body.

I had a physician talk to me after the first service and he said, by the way, don't be hesitant in saying that. Anatomically, it's true. The muscle makeup of the tongue makes it the strongest muscle in the body. The muscles work, and he described it for me medically, and then he said, but the muscles of the tongue work altogether differently, and most likely is anatomically the strongest muscle in the body. I had reference to obviously the verbal part of it, but he said no, anatomically it's the strongest.

You've got a strong muscle in your mouth and so do I. Therefore, he says at verse four, my lips will be lips of integrity. I will not speak unjustly. My tongue will not mutter deceit. I will talk truth. Far be it from me that I should declare you right because I believe you are wrong. And for me to call wrong right is not the good use of my tongue. It's not integrity. I hold fast my righteousness and will not let go. My heart does not reproach any of my days. What a way to live, huh? What a remarkable way to live.

You get to the third priority when you get down to verse 13 to the end of this chapter. And it's a bit of a relief, by the way. Somewhere in the middle of this chapter, Job changes the subject and moves toward the subject of the wicked. He leaves his testimony and he begins to talk about the wicked. Verse 12: "Behold, all of you have seen it. Why then do you act foolishly? This is the portion of a wicked man from God and the inheritance which tyrants receive from the Almighty. Though his sons are many," meaning the sons of a tyrant, "they are destined for the sword. His descendants will not be satisfied with bread. His survivors will be buried because of the plague, their widows will not be able to weep. Though he piles up silver like dust," it's the picture of the wicked getting wealthy, "though he piles up silver like dust and prepares garments as plentiful as the clay, he may prepare it, but the just will wear it."

Isn't that a great line? He may wind up with more clothes in his closet, but he'll have to will them to us. The righteous will wind up getting them. The old nonsense that's framed around license plates, "he who dies with the most toys wins," wrong. He who dies with the most toys passes them off to the righteous and the righteous get to enjoy them. In fact, look at how he describes the house. "He has built his house like the spider's web, or as the hut which the watchman has made."

Ever noticed how spiders build their webs in the flimsiest of places? And all you got to do is walk through them and you tear down their house. We've got the most diligent spider in North Dallas at our home. In front of our house, he builds that house every day. In fact, when we walk through the web in the morning, you get it on your mouth and you get it on your ears. Cynthia and I will say, did you walk through the web today? We came in last night, walked through the web. He now builds it during the day and we come back in. I want to meet that guy someday. He builds this house all over the place and you walk right through it, just as flimsy as a spider's web.

What's Job saying? What's the third priority? Realizing that wrong will not ultimately triumph. Realizing that wrong will not ultimately triumph brings us a sense of justice. What a relief that is, that the wicked are building houses of a spider's web. Verse 19: "He lies down rich, but never again. He opens his eyes and it is no more." I love the proverb that says, "Won't you set your eyes on that which is not? For riches certainly make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle toward heaven." There go the riches. So it is with the wicked.

You say, what do you mean, the wicked? Mine flew away in the last couple of years as well. Riches don't hang around, do they? And when the wicked get rich, he says, they will not ultimately triumph. Rest assured, God knows. God keeps the right record. He knows what He's about. He knows who is righteous and who is wicked. He's keeping the score. It's easy for that to get confused if you watch too much CNN. Okay, let me just say it. Be very discerning what you watch and what you read. Be very sure that the source is reliable. There are still some very straight-thinking people inside the beltway. Not a lot of them, but there are still some who are still thinking straight. It's a pleasure at times to hear from some. Reminds me that the wicked will not ultimately triumph. Straight thinking. You won't read it in most newspapers or the periodicals that you and I take that come to our home every week or see it on your basic television newscasts. That's too extreme. No, that's straight thinking. In a world that's gotten foggy and fuzzy, it's important to think straight.

Why am I yelling? I thought the other day when I was walking by my son's office and he was playing a tape of one of my messages and I thought, let me get this door shut. And I thought, I am starting to sound more like my daddy every day. And I remember looking at my dad thinking, get a life, Dad. Come on. You know what I think? I think I've begun to see things clearer than I've ever seen them in my life. And I don't say that out of pride, I say that out of enormous gratitude. And I find myself wrong about something every day. Doesn't mean I'm always right. But on this subject, I'm right. This is right. This is right. Ladies and gentlemen, listen. It is merely a spider's web, albeit that spider bites. It's ugly, and the webs are numerous. But the great priority is that I realize that wrong will not ultimately triumph, that in the end, God wins. And the mystery as it begins to unfold and truth begins to emerge, we will realize His plan is right.

James Russell Lowell put it so well: "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne. Stay on the scaffold. Keep thinking straight. Keep forming priorities from the word of God. Spend less time in the papers and more time in the scriptures. Let God give you your agenda and help you think through how to interpret the events of our times."

Bill Meyer: In the end, God wins. That's a comforting truth to carry into this day. When headlines unsettle us, when circumstances seem to tilt toward the wicked, we can rest in the quiet confidence that wrong will not have the final word. This is Insight for Living, and Chuck Swindoll is reminding us to spend less time reflecting on the news cycle and more time in the scriptures, letting God set our agenda.

Chuck titled his message, A Recommitment to Things That Matter. It's number 14 in a 22-part collection of messages taking us through the Old Testament story of Job. To access these messages, go to insight.org/broadcast. Insight for Living is pleased to provide companion resources for every study that Chuck presents, and this biographical series on Job is no different.

For instance, Chuck wrote a practical book that pairs naturally with this study. His book is titled, *Finding God When the World's on Fire*. You see, suffering has a way of stripping away every answer we thought we had. Our misery has a way of testing our assumptions, the belief that following the rules means we're spared from heartache. Well, Job discovered something better than easy answers. He discovered a God who shows up in the dark, and so can you.

Chuck Swindoll's book, *Finding God When the World's on Fire*, is an honest, Bible-based companion for anyone whose faith is being tested by real life, by loss, by illness, by uncertainty, by a world that refuses to settle down. When you support Insight for Living with a donation, we'll send Chuck's book to you with our gratitude. By giving generously, you're helping others discover the hope that God offers in His word. Ask for the book, *Finding God When the World's on Fire*, when you go to insight.org/donate, or call us at 800-772-8888.

Here's our contact information one more time. Go to insight.org/donate, or call 800-772-8888. Do you find yourself defeated by bad news? I'm Bill Meyer. Join us when Chuck Swindoll draws us back to the issues that truly matter Tuesday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, A Recommitment to Things That Matter, was copyrighted in 2002, 2004, and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.