"Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto thee" (Job 22:21). Eliphaz gives this excellent counsel to Job after he assumes that all of the sorrow and loss Job was experiencing was due to his not knowing God. The dictionary gives several definitions of acquaint: 1. to make familiar, as in "let me acquaint you with the facts," and 2. personal knowledge of.

The more I study the Bible, the more I am in awe of how God uses just a small word to make abundantly clear what He wants us to know. In this verse He doesn’t just say get acquainted, but to do it now. Most of us have a tendency to procrastinate, but this is a matter that is urgent and not one to be put off. We are told in Prov. 27:1, "Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." Our Assyrian people say; "Day ends, but trouble never ends." There is no decision in life as important as what we decide to do with the free gift God has provided for each one of us. If we make a wrong decision about a career, no matter how long it takes us to realize it was a mistake, we can change careers. When we have trusted Christ and are born into the family of God, then, and only then, are we ready to live or die. No matter what transpires in our experience, He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).

"Thereby good shall come unto thee." Does that mean that He will hedge us in, and that we will have smooth sailing? Did the Apostle Paul experience smooth sailing after his conversion? The Bible tells us in 2 Timothy 3:12; "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." He does not promise us "skies always blue," but He does promise much more. In Isaiah 26:3 we are told, "Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee." In John 14:27; "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." We as believers can put our head on the pillow and have His peace because He is trustworthy. We can be without anxiety if we believe His Word; "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." (Philippians 4:6).

To top it all off, we are told in Romans 8:35-39, "What shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other (creation), shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord."