Daily PresenceSample

We know that Job is a book about suffering. We know that Job had friends that gave him a lot of advice and apparently none of it was very good! In Chapter 26, Job sarcastically tells them how much they are helping the feeble and weak. What it boils down to is this: You guys aren’t helping me at all. Maybe they came with a sense of duty to make sure that Job didn’t depart from following God. I don’t really know their motivation. Perhaps they were there to appear religious. I don’t really know the why, but I do know what they missed—"what does our friend need right now?” Did he need discussions on the worthlessness of man? Did he need discussions on the righteousness of God? What he needed in that moment more than anything else were people to love him. I don’t know if these friends loved him or not, but they did show up for whatever reason. They stayed with him for whatever reason, but they missed the point of why they were there. When we need to be loved we need people to be there for us. Maybe all we can do is sit with them and cry. Romans 12:15— “rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn.” It’s hard when facing tragedy and it’s hard to be around someone and not know what to say or how to encourage them. However, if you have a friend suffering, what they might need more than anything else is simply people to love them in the moment and mourn with them. Jesus wept at the death of his friend Lazarus and Jesus knew that He would raise Lazarus. Maybe Jesus wept at the thought of what death does to us and those close to us. Maybe He wept at the thought of people who die without Him. Regardless of the full reason, Jesus wept. When those close to us are going through the mess of life that’s what they need…their loved ones to pull next to them and cry with them, mourn with them, rejoice with them and be with them. The exact same way that Jesus does for us.