Prayer: Father, I praise You for You are the giver of physical and spiritual life. You have known me from the foundation of the world. What an amazing realization. Grant me deeper awareness of a proper biblical concept of Your love involved in the pain and suffering I experience in my life on earth. Amen.
Reading: Job 3 key: 1-3
After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. 2 Then Job answered and said:
3 “May the day I was born perish,
and the night that said,
‘A man is conceived!’
Attention: Over the past couple of weeks, I have had conversations with two people who shared with me at a dark time in their lives, they contemplated self-harm, taking their life as a way out. However, because of their belief in the Sovereignty of God, they did not want to give the enemy of our soul victory.
Life is tough and all of us have or will face challenging times in our lives. I have two more friends who are battling life threatening illnesses. I am hoping to share their stories with you over the following weeks. Why? Because they are dealing with the issues of pain and suffering in relationship with a caring, all sufficient God. He is present, helping, comforting them amid great pain.
If you are also suffering or have friends and family members who are also suffering, much can be learned over the next few weeks about how to be a friend to the suffering. Job had three friends who came to him at this critical time. In Chapter 2, we were introduced to three friends who each came from differing regions to “mourn with him and comfort him.” If they had stayed with that goal in mind, they could have avoided the conversations which ensued. Please observe each friend and their response to helping Job get a perspective on God and His involvement in pain and suffering.
Job’s three friends did well for the first week. They kept silent. They sat on the ground with him for seven days, “because they saw that his pain was very great.” Silence combined with presence can be a powerful healing force. Add the power of prayer to your silence and presence and you have a winning combination. If you have experienced the comfort of God and are now comforting others with that same comfort, you are passing God’s comfort forward.
Paul tells us about this very comfort in his second letter to the Corinthians, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, the Father of compassion and God of all encouragement. He encourages us in every trouble, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any trouble, through the very encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.”
This is powerful! I hope you will seek to be a comfort to those who need comfort. If you have experienced God’s comfort, please pass it forward! In Yeshua’s name!
Action: I have been comforted by God; I will comfort others with His comfort.
Engage: I am God’s hands and feet when I comfort others with His comfort.
Relationship: I am in full relationship with Adonai when I comfort others with His comfort.
Prayer: Father, may I be a dispenser of Your comfort today, tomorrow, for all my days. You have comforted me many times. Help me to be a comfort to others. Amen.
Memory Verse: 2 Corinthians 1:4
4 He encourages us in every trouble, so that we may be able to encourage those who are in any trouble, through the very encouragement with which we ourselves are encouraged by God.
Music Video: Resound Worship—God of all Comfort
Remember, “Abide in Yeshua, today!”