The Well-Oiled Soul (Job, Romans 8)

The oddities of tracing a thought in anyone's head. Who can really know, right?

Yesterday while making bread, I came across a reminder in my recipe to make sure my bowl was well-oiled before placing it in the wooden bowl to rise. The phrase kept running through my head to the point I wrote it down so I wouldn’t forget. A well-oiled bowl. However, I kept substituting soul for bowl until this was the refrain running through my mind: a well-oiled soul. I thought about it off and on all day as I didn’t have another chance to sit down and write, which is the way I work through things I am pondering.

Is my soul well-oiled? 

What does that even mean? I thought to myself. I wrestled all day and talked to a friend about it for a few minutes after church. I came home and slept on it and asked myself if my soul is well oiled, and here I am after reading and revisiting the thought again this morning.

My first thought ran to the anointing oil mentioned in the Bible. In the Old Testament, a special oil is used to anoint the priests and had a specific formula that was not to be reproduced for anything else (Ex. 30:23-33). The oil mentioned in the Bible is also often symbolic of the Holy Spirit, and in Christ we are gifted with the knowledge of the truth through Him (1 Jn. 2:20). Tangled up in all of this thinking about bread is my reading of Exodus and the ordinance of the Passover and the bread that had no leaven to power it and no time to rise, the people leaving quickly with bowls bound up in the clothes on their shoulder (v. 33-39 AMP).

Am I confessing my sin?

I had to ask myself if I am confessing my sin on a daily or moment-by-moment basis when I recognize it?

When I sat down to read a section of Job this morning as well, it too became caught in my thoughts as I wrestled with this idea. Job’s faith is great even though his grief is tremendous. He understands even in his turmoil and desire to justify himself and his extreme conflict that God is unsearchably great (Job 11:7), wise in heart and mighty in strength (9:4), infinitely perfect (12:13), the granter of life and lovingkindness (10:12-13), provident (10:12), and purposeful(12:23-25), and Job is willing to hope in Him even if He chooses to kill him (13:15), even if He had brought trouble upon an innocent Job for His own purposes (5:17-18). But here is the thing, Job also understands (even in his ranting to speak to God and defend himself) that he is a sinner—he just wants to ask what his great sin had been, what sin had he committed and in his carefulness to offer sacrifices (even for his children who might sin unknowingly) had he overlooked in himself? In asking to speak to God, he understands the unspeakable dread of being face to face with Him (13:21). Completely terrified, Job still says if God would give him the ability to speak to Him, he would do so with fear and trembling just to find out what he had done to “deserve” the grief piled upon him. He understands that in his grief his words are incoherent (6:3), that they belonged to the wind (6:26) and should be ignored. (oof! This makes me wonder if I am ignoring the words people speak in their grief and trials that should fly away with the wind instead of being entertained, but that's for another day's pondering.)

Job never denies that he is a sinner, but he knows in this case he has a clean conscience before the Lord. Just as a well-oiled bowl keeps bread from sticking to it and impeding the rising process, a well oiled soul knows the One it trusts in and does what is necessary to keep sin from sticking to it and impeding the process of growing in Him. The well-oiled soul understands its own fallen nature and repents often, falling on the grace that only God can give, on the grace found only in the Mediator, Christ (Job 9:33; 1 Tim. 2:5), the One Job longs for and prays for. Ultimately the well-oiled soul understands that it is God alone who shows mercy in His sovereignty to whomever He chooses, He alone that bore the sacrifice, He alone that brings redemption. The well-oiled soul rests in His work and delights in His discipline to escape the bondage of the flesh, even in the midst of trials and sorrow. 

Am I wisely choosing my friends and being the friend mine need?

Back to the analogy for a minute: making bread successfully is full of pitfalls, just as life is. Having resources to turn to that give expert guidance, as well as experienced, supportive friends to encourage as necessary are some of the tools required for persisting when the bread doesn’t rise or is too dense or tastes “off” or looks distorted instead of like a loaf of bread (or one of the million other things that can happen when learning how to turn out a tasty loaf). My thought was this, part of having a well-oiled soul is having Christian friends grounded in the faith to walk alongside in the journey because hard times will come. When they do, how will I respond? How will I get back up if I fall down and have no one to help me back up? (Ecc. 4:10). Will people ask me the hard questions? Will I receive them? 

Job’s understanding of his position before God never denies that trouble will come, but he does have hope in God’s salvation in his helpless state, in his own obedience to Him, in his walk. In addition, he has the expectation that his friends will faithfully water his soul in his affliction (6:14, 21) and persistently believe him when he says he is innocent instead of acting on their false beliefs and offering only condemnation when encouragement is necessary (6:28-30). 

The encouragement of Romans 8

For me, the encouragement to persevere in hard times has come from knowing God through His Spirit inside me, through His Word that instructs me and teaches me of His faithfulness, from experiences that have strengthen knowledge, from wiser ones than me who have walked the path already and live in fruitful joy, from friends who encourage faithfully. The love of God in Christ is the oil that keeps my soil moistened. My daily waterings keep me from sticking to the bowl of life, keep the things of the world that I encounter daily from sticking to me and preventing my growth. 

Romans 8 in its entirety has watered my soil for many years now. I am pretty sure one year it kept me alive. I revisit it often, drinking deeply of the oil of gladness that comes from knowing I am free from condemnation in Christ, knowing I can be free from having a mind set on the flesh (one controlled by a sinful nature) and have the mind of the Spirit that brings life and peace—“the spiritual well-being that comes from walking with God both now and forever” Rom. 8:6, AMP)—to help me “habitually” put to death the sinful deeds of the body in which I live. I can cry out, “Abba! Father!” because I am His child and His heir and the fellow heir with Christ “if indeed [I] share in His suffering so that[I] may also share in His glory” (8:17, AMP). Even in my groaning in the hard times of this life, I wait in anxious hope for not only His future appearing but also His present help through the Spirit He has given me to live inside, the One that searches my heart and intercedes when I don’t even know what to ask for to pray in His will (26-27), the One who anoints my head with gladness. In my rising from a sinful state because of what He has done, I must conform to His image and be sanctified (v. 29). 

And in Romans 8, I read this that makes me think of Job who longed for an intercessor, who had charges unjustly brought against him by the accuser and his own friends, who longed for a right relationship with God, who looked forward to a resurrection: 

Who will bring any charge against God’s elect (His chosen ones)? It is God who justifies us [declaring us blameless and putting us in a right relationship with Himself]. Who is the one who condemns us? Christ Jesus is the One who died [to pay our penalty], and more than that, who was raised [from the dead] and who is at the right hand of God interceding [wit the Father] for us. Who shall ever separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (33-35, AMP).

And I am eternally grateful that I have what Job looked forward to. Nothing will ever be able to separate the ones who are conquerors in and through Him from the love of God which is in Christ! Nothing. No thing. Let that soak into your well-oiled soul as it has soaked and is soaking into mine.