Posts

Showing posts from November, 2008

How Do You Treat Those Suffering In Their Trials? (Part Two)

How Do You Treat Those Suffering In Their Trials? (Part Two) For Part One , see Seek To Offer Comfort . 2) Remember Words Of Grief Are Often As The Wind, Spoken Without Meaning: Job 6:1-5 But Job answered and said, Oh that my grief were throughly weighed, and my calamity laid in the balances together! For now it would be heavier than the sand of the sea: therefore my words are swallowed up. For the arrows of the Almighty are within me, the poison whereof drinketh up my spirit: the terrors of God do set themselves in array against me. Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass? or loweth the ox over his fodder? Job says, “I am crying out and you can see my misery and you show no pity at all. You act as if I’m not in trouble. I wouldn’t be crying out if I weren’t.” He points out that the longeared donkey out in the field doesn’t bray for something to eat when he is eating grass. So Job is saying that he wouldn’t be crying out if there were nothing hurting him. He says, “I’m hurting and I’...

How Do You Treat Those Suffering In Their Trials? (Part One)

How Do You Treat Those Suffering In Their Trials? (Part One) As I was reading through the book of Job recently, I was thinking about our response to those suffering through trials or grieving. I have met various people that were not right with God and did not have the right (ie. Biblical) perspective on their trial or in their grief. Many times we hear vain or sometimes even blasphemous words from someone professing to be a believer, who is having a hard time trusting the Lord in their situation. What is our response? Certainly we should pray for wisdom and do what we can to offer them Biblical comfort and hope - but how do we react to their words spoken in fear or pain? I agree, sin is sin - if someone speaks against God, it is not somehow excusable or acceptable because they are going through a difficult time in their lives. However, it is understandable. They need to repent of their words toward the Lord that were spoken out of rashness or anger. I believe it is wrong to simply over...