Friends

Job 2: 11Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that was come upon him, they came every one from his own place; Eliphaz the Temanite, and Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite: for they had made an appointment together to come to mourn with him and to comfort him. 12And when they lifted up their eyes afar off, and knew him not, they lifted up their voice, and wept; and they rent every one his mantle, and sprinkled dust upon their heads toward heaven. 13So they sat down with him upon the ground seven days and seven nights, and none spake a word unto him: for they saw that his grief was very great.

 Did y'all read that? Job went through a tough time. He lost pretty much everything he had. His three friends come to see him because they heard what happened. When they saw Job, they were torn up right along with him. They even sat on the ground with him for seven days and nights. I don't know many people that would just sit there for a week and not say a word. Now, if you keep reading in Job, his friends end up not being such great friends, but that is a lesson for another day. I want to focus on verse 13. 

We all go through bad times. Life happens and it is hard. Lose loved ones, jobs, friendships, and even marriages. And during these hard times, we just feel like sitting on the floor and not doing anything. We let the things that we need to do pile up around us and at times, we sink into a depressive state. When you get into this place, how do you get out? Most of the time you can't get out of that place on your own. But with God and a few good friends (and family), you can get through anything. 

When everything is going great in your life, this is when you need to make sure you have those three good friends around you. Yes, friends do come and go. But I believe that God places certain people in our lives from different times and seasons. We need to do this for when those times come when all we want to do is lay on the floor or in bed, we have people around us to pull us up and help us get through our situations. 

These friends might actually come and pull you out of bed or they may just come and sit with you as Job's friends did. Now, Job's friends did take it in the wrong direction once they opened their mouths, but again, that's for another lesson...lol. But we also need those friends that are going to speak those strong words in love and tell us what we need to hear. 

But as much as we need these types of people around us, we need to be these friends as well. Can the people rely on you when times get hard? Would you be willing to go and just sit with a friend when their hard times come, pull them up out of bed, or go and intercede in prayer for them? If you struggle with doing these types of things, then that's when we need to go to God and ask Him to instill these things in us. Because, if you are a good friend, then you will be called upon during some hard times. 

We also need to reach out during these times. We can't just sit there and wallow in our grief/pain/situation. Some people might not have the gift of discernment and the ability to pick up on small things to recognize a situation, like myself. I'm trying to work on that. And you may be really good at hiding what you're going through. Reach out to that close friend. You'll be happy that you did.