About 50 days ago I started reading the book of Job and if you don't know - Job lost everything that he had. He was one of the wealthiest people in the entire world and lost everything within a couple days. Even though he lost everything, he never cursed God or turned his back on him.
Fast-forward to the last chapter of Job and we read that Job is now wealthier than ever. God rewarded him for trusting him even when he was at his worst.
Job had three friends come and talk to him and all their advice was not truth bearing. God rebukes his three friends for adding to Job's suffering by their false assumptions and critical attitudes.
After the Lord had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, "I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. (Job 42:7)
It really sticks out to me that the Lord was angry when they didn't speak the truth. How many times have you tried to bend the truth to make someone feel better or to make yourself look better? My guess is probably many times.
I am here to tell you that makes the Lord angry.
Even if you think what you are saying is helping someone else, if it's not the truth, it isn't doing any good. It's better to not even try to help if you aren't encouraging others with the truth.
I can imagine that Job knew that God was upset with his friends for the false assumptions and advice they were giving him. It would be easy to push them to the side knowing that God was angry with them.
If I found out that my friends were giving me faulty advice, it might be easy to turn against them. That isn't what God wants. The Lord instructed Job to pray over his three friends. When Job prayed for his three friends the Lord accepted his prayer. After Job prayed for his friends, the Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before.
Are you seeing what is going on here? Job's friends were giving him false advice, and the Lord was angry with them. The Lord instructed Job to pray for his friends and Job was obedient and prayed for them. The Lord accepted his prayer and blessed Job with more than he ever had before.
My one thing for you today is for you to pray for those around you. We are not perfect and we are never going to give somebody perfect advice. The best thing we can do is pray for those around you. Pray for all of those people who give you advice on a daily basis.
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