Job chapter 4: verses 3 – 4 (NIV)
Think how you have instructed many,
how you have strengthened feeble hands.
Your words have supported those who stumbled;
You have strengthened faltering knees.
Hebrews chapter 3: Verses 13-14 (NIV)
But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original conviction firmly to the very end.
2 Corinthians chapter 1: verses 3-4 (NIV)
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.
Following on from yesterday’s verses we see the outcome of Job’s life of integrity. He was able to encourage and support others. He was not simply caught up with looking after his family and friends. The need for Christians to live this way is reinforced many times in the New Testament, but the importance of encouraging others is documented by the writer of the book of Hebrews as being something that we should do daily. Perhaps because we never know what others may be going through and the right word of encouragement to them at the right time may be the very thing that keeps them on the right road. It is not for us to point the finger at the things we may see as sin, without the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. It is our role to be compassionate and to remind them of what God has done for them. God Himself is the One who will deal with any sin. It is our job to encourage them and perhaps walk along the road with them for a while until they are strong enough to continue. Sadly, Job’s friends were too busy speculating what he had done wrong to be of any comfort to Him, Let’s make sure we don’t do the same.
Dear Lord,
I am grateful for those who have encouraged and supported me to continue walking on the right road. Help me to be open and ready to offer that word of encouragement to those You send across my path, with the wisdom and discernment that comes from You. I ask in Jesus’ Name. Amen.