Jesus: The Compassionate Friend:

I have been doing some studying and reading of the book of Job in the Bible.  This has been a good book to realize how much people, even Christians can suffer in life.  How we choose to live and worship God in this suffering is the important piece.  The book I have been reading is “Sacred Suffering” by Katie Davidson.  This is through the Daily Grace company, and I highly encourage reading it.    

One section I had been reading about was after Job had lost everything; his good land, his plants, his animals, his children, and his health, his three friends, named Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar came and visited him. At first, we can really find these friends as great and inspirational.  They had chosen to travel in order to see their friend who had been really struggling and suffering.  They were coming from a long way, when it was not the easiest or most convenient to travel back then.  

However, we can later see that their attitude towards Job was not one of awesome friends. They would eventually turn to blaming Job for his suffering, believing he must have a massive amount of sin in order to have this grave amount of “punishment”.  The Lord must be trying to teach him a lesson, an important lesson. 

Friendships are great to have with those around us. This is especially true if they are helpful and kind Christian friends. We need them for us to develop more fellowship with the church body.  However, they are not as good as Jesus is as our friend.  The Lord offers his comfort and his love to us endlesslessly, even when there are times we do not deserve it, which is often the case. Sometimes friends, because they are human, are going to fail us and/or going to let us down, but we can know Jesus will never let us down in our friendship with Him.

One section I really loved in this devotional is,

 “Yes, the friends went above and beyond in their travels to care for Job, but the depths of their compassion were limited because they were limited human beings. They only did what they knew to do.  Jesus knows deeper.  Jesus knows every corner of our souls and all of our hiding places. Jesus knows eternity past and eternity future. Jesus invites us to accept his limitless comfort that promises help for today and hope for tomorrow.”

I love this section because it really shows how much Jesus takes the time to get to know us and develop a relationship with us.  This shows He will be the present help and He will give us hope for our futures.   

There is later a verse from the book of Job describing a friend who serves as an intercessor. The verse says, “”My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as one pleads for a friend.” I love that Job understands who God is.  I am glad Job knows there is an intercessor who is working on His side.  He may not be fully sure what God is trying to teach him in the time of his suffering, but he knows where he can go for help.  

Have there ever been times you have looked to Jesus as a friend?  Or do you consider him as something really far away and not close to you?  Do you go to him when you are in need of comfort or love, or do you tend to avoid him because you are afraid of him condemning you for sinning?  Do you look to him for guidance like you would your human friends or do you only seek him when in church settings?  It is good to be reflective on this.  How we choose to see and seek God is fundamental for our overall relationship with Him.  

There are two challenges for this week.  The first is to spend some time in prayer to God about the desire for him to be your friend.  This is to spend some time in conversation with him as your friend, talking to him, learning his guidance, looking to him for advice and comfort, and spending time worshiping Him for his righteousness.  

Then the second challenge is to spend time with another person and to spread the love and kindness you are now learning from Christ.  Is there a person in your life who you believe needs a friend?  Is there someone you know who is really suffering who could use a Christ like friend by their side?  I have personally met a few women at my church recently who could really use someone to stand by their side.  I have been thinking about reaching out and finding ways to support them.  I also have a coworker who definitely could use my love as they are struggling with their health.  

This has been a good reminder for me as I actually work at a place called “The Job Foundation,”  (Job meaning like the name not a place of work), so it has been good to study the book of the Bible that  has inspired my working nonprofit.  It is a reminder to me of what my work is all about in many ways.  We are being good friends and being like a guidance for the families in Waterloo who are struggling financially, and hopefully along the way, they learn a lot more.