Kindness to a Suffering Friend

Job 6:14  One should be kind to a fainting friend, but you have accused me without the slightest fear of the Almighty.

Job’s friends were sitting with him in his misery.  They were there to try to help him get through this very rough time of his life.  But, they were doing more harm than good.  They had the idea that Job’s misery was caused by Job’s problems with God.   They were certain that God was punishing Job for sinning against Him.

Many of us have similar notions.  We see our trials and troubles of life as God’s punishment for our sins.  We believe that the more holy we are the less trouble we are going to have.  We strive to be as good as we can be so that we will avoid the disasters of life.

Job knew better.  He didn’t understand why things were as they were, but he knew it wasn’t because of sin.  He knew the integrity of his heart.  He knew that there were no issues going on between God and himself.  He knew because he made it a point to take care of his soul.  He pursued godliness in his heart.  He worked hard at keeping his heart right with God.

We need to be careful when we judge the heart of others.  We are often mistaken in our judgments.  It is not for us to accuse others of sin.  God alone has that right.  We can point out things that we see that are obviously sin, but that is as far as we dare go.  We have no authority or right to condemn others.  We must respect God and let Him take care of His own business.  He does not need our doing His work for Him, nor is it welcomed.

It is good for us to befriend each other in troublesome times.  It is good to come alongside each other as a helper.  It is good for us to show our compassion by doing that which is good.  Kindness to a suffering soul is the best medicine you can ever give.  Don’t add salt to a wounded soul.  If you don’t know how to help with kindness, don’t say anything.

Will your anchor hold in the storms of life?

Job 6:10  “At least I can take comfort in this: Despite the pain, I have not denied the words of the Holy One.”

We need to learn from Job.  In spite of his enormous physical and emotional pain, he did not deny God.  He trusted and believed God no matter the circumstances of his life.  He did not take the easy way out and blame God for his troubles.  It is easy to use God as a scapegoat.  It is much harder to hold on to God no matter what comes our way.  It is easier to let go of God than it is to hang on.  It is easier to not believe in what God has promised than it is to act out what He has promised in the storms of life.

We are most vulnerable when we are in pain and suffering through very difficult circumstances and Satan knows it.  He will try his hardest to get you to doubt or deny God’s Word during those times.  We don’t like suffering or pain. 

A hymn that I grew up with asks the question, “Will your anchor hold in the storms of life?”  How can we be sure it will hold?  The answer lies in what we do in the calm seasons of life.  It is then that we must invest our lives in Christ.  It is then that we must pursue a deeper walk with Him.  We must be faithfully and diligently into the Word, studying it and praying over it with a desire for greater understanding of it.  We may sort of get by with giving the Word a nominal place in our lives when things are going well, but it really shows up when the storms come.  The same thing holds true with our prayer life.  The time to really develop a strong connection with God is when things are calm and going well.

Seek the Lord out and never be satisfied with anything less than an intimate walk with Him.  Don’t play games with your soul.  The closer you get to the Lord while things are calm, the better you will be able to cling to Him when things get rough.  You will discover that you won’t doubt in the dark what you know to be true in the light.  You will discover that your anchor will hold in the storms of life.

Don't blame God for the rough times of life.

Job 1:20-22  Job stood up and tore his robe in grief.  Then he shaved his head and fell to the ground before God.  He said, “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be stripped of everything when I die.  The LORD gave me everything I had, and the LORD has taken it away.  Praise the name of the LORD!  In all of this, Job did not sin by blaming God.

If anyone had a reason to blame God for his misfortune, it was Job.  Job was a man who was determined to live a righteous life.  He was found to be blameless before both God and man.  And then, in a matter of hours, his whole life was turned upside down.  He lost everything that was meaningful to him except his wife.  His wealth was gone, all of his children were killed, all his crops and livestock were destroyed, and he was afflicted with an unbearable outbreak of boils all over his body.  What would you do in similar circumstances?  Would you in anger point a finger at God and want to know why?  I think most people would, but Job didn’t.

Job was overcome with grief, but he did not blame God.  He understood that he came into this world with nothing and would leave it with nothing.  He understood that the blessings of life are not ours to hoard, but to enjoy while we have them.  He understood that we don’t deserve God’s favor when we receive it.  It is God’s right to bless and withdraw His blessings.  Job did not know the whys of his sudden misery, but he was confident enough in God’s love and goodness that he could trust the Lord.  He would not respond negatively towards God, but positively.  He praised the Lord!  He turned to God and worshiped Him.  He would deal with his calamity later, but at the moment he turned to the Lord and praised Him.

Don’t blame God if you are going through tough times in your life.  Don’t turn away from God and think that He doesn’t love you or care about what you are dealing with.  Don’t let Satan confuse your thinking and cause you to think that God is against you.  Look around you; you are richly blessed. 

There are a multitude of people who will never know the blessings you have in life.  No matter how bad things may be for you, it is not as bad as it could be.  We too need to understand that we enter the world with nothing and will leave it with nothing.  Don’t hang on too tightly to stuff.  It can all be taken away from you in a moment of time.  Like Job, learn to praise the Lord at all times, for all things.  Don’t fall into sin by blaming God for your hard times.  Respond positively and not negatively to life’s circumstances by always worshiping God and being grateful to Him for your life and blessings.

God knows us by name.

Job 1:8  Then the LORD asked Satan, “Have you noticed my servant Job?  He is the finest man in all the earth---a man of complete integrity.  He fears God and will have nothing to do with evil.”

God knows us by name.  Of all the people on the earth at that time, God knew Job by name.  That is an amazing thing.  God has the ability to know each one of us by our names and He never gets our names mixed up. 

God had Job pegged.  He not only knew his name, He knew all about his heart.  God knew Job well enough that He could call him the finest man in all the earth.  This tells us that not only did God know Job’s heart; He knows the heart of everyone on earth.  God compared Job to all the people on earth and then made His judgment of him.  I think that is absolutely amazing. 

It is also amazing that God said the things He said about Job.  Job was living a pure and holy life.  He took his relationship with God seriously and God knew it.  We do not live godly lives without it being known and affirmed by God.

We notice as well that God is speaking about Job to Satan.  Satan was adamant about accusing Job of being less than God’s evaluation of him.  Satan was convinced that no one could be as good as God said he was.  Satan does not know the heart.  His belief is that no one is good enough to please God.  No one is worthy of God’s blessings.  No one is qualified to be God’s child. 

Dear friend, never believe what Satan says about you; believe what God says about you.  Don’t let Satan convince you that you are not who God says you are.  God says that if you accept Jesus as your personal Savior and you are letting Him be your Lord, you are forever His child and there is a place reserved in heaven for you.  There is absolutely nothing Satan can do to change that. 

What does God think of you?

 

Job 1:1  There was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz.  He was blameless, a man of complete integrity.  He feared God and stayed away from evil.

Wouldn’t you like to be like Job?  I know I would.  Here was a man whom God declared to be blameless, a man of complete integrity.  Job feared God and stayed away from evil.

What needs to happen in you in order for God to say of you that you are blameless and full of integrity?  A blameless soul is one who is living totally under the righteousness of Christ.  He trusts Christ alone for his salvation and strives to emulate the life of Christ.  He is one who does not resist the work of the Spirit in his life to change him. 

A person of integrity is consistently doing life God’s way.  He is one who trustworthy.  He does not waver when it comes to doing what is right before God.  He can always be counted on in times of need.

Two things must happen before it can be said of us that we are blameless and a person of integrity.  We must fear God and stay away from evil.  One of the things that we have for the most part gotten away from is to fear God.  We have lost our sense of respect and reverence for God.  We have forgotten how to regard Him as holy and just.  We have pasteurized God to the point where He is not much more than one of us.

Staying away from evil is not something most of us take seriously.  We may not participate in it like some do, but neither do we stay away from it.  We allow ourselves to be entertained by it.  We do not stop ourselves from being entertained by it like we should.  We let it enter into our minds and ultimately into our hearts instead of striving to stay away from it.

Let us  take heed today over our souls.  Let us strive to live blameless lives.  Let us endeavor to be known as a people of complete integrity.  Let us learn to fear God and strive to stay away from evil.

Preserve the holiness of the Sabbath.

Neh. 13:22  Then I commanded the Levites to purify themselves and to guard the gates in order to preserve the holiness of the Sabbath.

We are all guilty.  We do not do a very good job of preserving the holiness of the Lord’s Day.  We go to church, but it is only one of the many things we crowd into the day.  We go out to eat and no longer feel guilty about it.  We go to work and justify it claiming it is necessary for our jobs.  We go to sporting events to either watch or play.  We go shopping.  We mow our lawns and do our laundry.  We plant and harvest our crops.  We do all the things we would do any other day and convince ourselves that it is okay since we were in church.  I wonder what the Lord thinks of us.

Now, I understand that the Sabbath was made for man and not man for the Sabbath.  We cannot legislate our activities.  What some of us feel the freedom to do may not be what others feel the freedom to do.  What I wonder about is whether or not what we do what we do has even been prayed over.  Have we given the Lord a chance to determine whether or not we should be doing what we do?  How can we know whether or not the Lord is okay with us if we don’t first take our activities to Him?

Nehemiah’s concern was to protect the holiness of the Sabbath.  He did not want to allow the people to do anything that would desecrate the Lord’s Day.  I believe that we should be equally as concerned about how we live on the Lord’s Day.  Do we honor the Lord’s Day by what we do?  Perhaps the world would take note and listen more carefully to what we are trying to tell them if we showed by our actions that we truly do love the Lord and strive to respect the day He has set aside for us to worship Him.

Reflecting Back for Future Growth

Phil. 3:13-14  No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I strain to reach the end of the race and receive for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven.

As we look at this past year and think about where we have been, what we have done, our ups and downs, and our spiritual journeys, I want us to pause for a few moments and consider how we are different today than we were last year at this time.  Are you a better person today than you were a year ago at this time?  If so, in what ways?  Can you point to specific areas in your life that are better than they were a year ago? 

We need to continue to grow through our experiences.  We need to be able to see definite improvements in our faith walk.  We should be more consistent and diligent in our Bible readings.  We should be more comfortable and faithful in prayer.  We need to be doing a better job of living out our faith.  We need to be more comfortable in being identified as Christians in the world. 

As we face the New Year the one thing we all should be doing is to forget this past year and press forward into the new one.  If we are not any better off now than we were a year ago, forget it and resolve today to change.  Resolve to let the Spirit take control of your will so that you will be more disciplined in your faith.  Resolve to put forth your best effort to grow your faith.  Make a daily commitment to do something to strengthen and grow your faith.  Resolve not to give up the effort if you falter.  There is no excuse for not trying.  The reward for your efforts is that you will know our Lord in a deeper and more satisfying way than you ever thought possible.

If you are better today than you were a year ago, way to go!  Don’t slack off this New Year.  Continue to work hard at being the best you can be in Christ.  Let the Spirit have more and more control over you.  Stay the course of your life.  Keep putting forth your best effort to know the Lord and serve Him.  The strides you have made won’t mean much if you don’t build on them. 

Expect challenges to your faith this coming year; they are going to come.  He who faces them boldly under the lordship of Christ will live in victory.  With Jesus as Lord, this will be the best year of your life, no matter what circumstances of life await you.