Comforters

What kind of comforter are you and I, and what kind of friends are we?  How many times we can, and have, misjudged people, thinking we know what they are going through so we deal out medicine in our speech and we miss the mark, end up hurting the person instead of helping them.  It is so easy to misjudge what others are saying because what we have to say seems to us, to be more important and we can hardly wait to say it.  

Many times when we talk to someone, we are so engrossed in ourselves and what we have to say that we only hinder the people we are trying to help without really knowing it.  If all we do is think about what we have to say when we are talking to a friend, then we are lousy listeners, and we miss the heart of the friend or the people we are talking to, who are pouring out their heart to us, seeking our help or advice.  Things like this happen all the time in different circumstances and situations.  Our intentions may be good but at times in the end we end up discouraging our friend, or the people we are talking to.  Think about it and be honest, has this ever happened to you or have you ever been the lousy listener?  I think most of us have walked in the shoes of both parties, at times.  I know I have experienced both sides of the coin, so to speak.  

Remember Job and his three friends and how miserable their counsel was to Job?  I don’t think their intention was to discourage Job, but they did.  They treated him like a heathen, and not a friend, they seemed to have no pity on him whatsoever.  Job may have taught these so called friends much of what they knew before these tests came upon him.  These men ended up being truly lousy comforters and one of the reasons was because even though they knew Job and considered him a friend, they must not have known his heart.  Job was in a place of real anguish, grief, sorrow and pain, looking for comfort but all he received was more discouragement, rejection, pain and probably disbelief at how his friends could treat him the way they were treating him.

The reason I said their intentions were good was because it says this about them in Job 2:11-13, “Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this adversity that had come upon him, they came each one from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite; and they made an appointment together to come to sympathize with him and comfort him.  When they lifted up their eyes at a distance and did not recognize him, they raised their voices and wept.  And each of them tore his robe and they threw dust over their heads toward the sky.  Then they sat down on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights with no one speaking a word to him, for they saw that his pain was very great.”

After all this, and more, this is what Job had to say about them, it is written in Job 16:1-4, “Then Job replied: ‘I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all!  Will your long-winded speeches never end?  What ails you that you keep on arguing?  I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you

and shake my head at you.’”

After saying all this, I wonder what kind of comforters you are or have been in the past.  I have to say that I have been somewhat like Job’s friends too many times, to my shame. (Forgive me Lord, I am so sorry, please help me to be more like you in my dealings with people, help me to love them like you do and to always show compassion, kindness and love, I thank you for Your forgiveness Lord, and I praise You, in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.)

If you feel the Lord’s conviction in your life while reading this message, I hope you will repent also and ask the Lord to forgive you.  P.S. I am glad that Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to comfort us in our time of need knowing that He knows our hearts and all about us and still He truly loves us.  May the Lord bless you and keep you in His perfect peace and may you have a safe and prosperous day!!