Friends

Be careful of those who call themselves your friends.  Think about Job and his so called three friends and how they always tried to make him the victim and themselves the holy ones.  Think of Job’s situation, he is in pain and suffering,  not knowing what was happening to him and these three guys show up but have very little compassion for him.  When he needed someone to understand, they assumed they knew everything that he was experiencing and their assumption was that he had to have sinned, that he might have pride in his life or something else, what else would it be?

Have you ever had a friend that most of the time when you talk to them you walked away feeling worse than you did before you talked to them?  I have, and I can understand somewhat how you feel.  The sad thing about this is that most of us have been that kind of person at times in our lives.  

Have you ever talked to someone that’s been a real encourager, but just told you the things you wanted to hear and not what you needed to hear?  That is not a real, true friend either.  

What we need are friends that truly love us, those that will encourage us with compassion and love, but tell the truth while they are doing it, without assuming they know everything we are going through.  These kinds of friends are very hard to come by and seem to be very rare these days; I thank God that I have a few of these friends in my life.  When you think of all the networking devices people have and use today it is very hard to have any real close friends, they seem to be on Ipads, computers, cell phones or whatever device they use.

And what about Job’s wife, read what she said to him in Job 2:9-10, “Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die. But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.”  I realize that she must have said this out of the anguish of her heart because she lost everything that Job lost also and she must have been devastated, but it didn’t help the situation.  

If you read the end of the book of Job, Job was vindicated and his three friends were humbled and needed Job to sacrifice for them.  Read Job 42:1-16, “Then Job answered the Lord, and said, I know that thou canst do everything, and that no thought can be withholden from thee. Who is he that hideth counsel without knowledge? therefore have I uttered that I understood not; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. Hear, I beseech thee, and I will speak: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me. I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. And it was so, that after the Lord had spoken these words unto Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite, My wrath is kindled against thee, and against thy two friends: for ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right, as my servant Job hath. Therefore take unto you now seven bullocks and seven rams, and go to my servant Job, and offer up for yourselves a burnt offering; and my servant Job shall pray for you: for him will I accept: lest I deal with you after your folly, in that ye have not spoken of me the thing which is right, like my servant Job. So Eliphaz the Temanite and Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went, and did according as the Lord commanded them: the Lord also accepted Job. And the Lord turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came there unto him all his brethren, and all his sisters, and all they that had been of his acquaintance before, and did eat bread with him in his house: and they bemoaned him, and comforted him over all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him: every man also gave him a piece of money, and every one an earring of gold. So the Lord blessed the latter end of Job more than his beginning: for he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, and a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first, Jemima; and the name of the second, Kezia; and the name of the third, Kerenhappuch. And in all the land were no women found so fair as the daughters of Job: and their father gave them inheritance among their brethren. After this lived Job an hundred and forty years, and saw his sons, and his sons' sons, even four generations.”

What I am trying to convey here is that only God knows the thoughts and intents of the heart and we don’t, so when we have the opportunity to bless and encourage someone we need to ask the Lord for discernment and wisdom before we end up discouraging them more than what they already are!!  I hope this has been an encouragement to all who read it and I hope it will be a blessing.  May the good Lord bless you and yours and may you have a super, super day!!