One of the things I glean from the book of Job is the fact that Job´s friends kept answering questions Job had never asked! Isn´t that still a relevant problem ?  Thousands of well-prepared sermons are coming out today, Sunday, but are they all really meeting the immediate need?

Billy Graham once told us of an American pastor who, despite his profound teaching, preached far above the heads of the people.  His ministry changed to the better when the Lord led him to ask with a genuine, sympathetic heart, at the start of the Sunday´s service,  Where does it hurt?

I was yesterday sharing something “deep” with a young friend in my car.  Suddenly he said, “I wish you would pray for me”, and he shared with me a specific need that had to do with his studies at the university where he faced a deadlock.  That humbled me.  I was answering questions he hadn´t asked.  Like the friends of Job my theology could be right, but a simple and sympathetic “heart-theology” was much more called for.

Now, this has nothing to do with psychological therapy.  It has to do with our relationship to Jesus Christ in following and serving Him at the right time of a specific need of a needy friend.  It´s as simple as that.  Job´s friends were not that simple.  And that provoked the anger of the Lord.

Our need is not “big shots”, but simple people with sympathetic, broken hearts. The story of Job´s friends tells us how that need will not be met. However,  the story of Job himself tells us of a tried believer on redemptive ground, very tried, indeed, and yet at the end, a tremendous blessing (ch. 42:12) – “and full of days” (v.17), i.e. full of blessed days to the glory of Christ, his vindicating, glorious and never failing Redeemer.

Read again Job´s Christ-centered testimony in ch.19:25-27.

August 26, 2012 – jn