The other day on this blog, I shared a very real "psalm" from my personal journal because I felt God was asking me to. Why? I don't know. Maybe someone needed to know that they could be that real with God, and not get struck with lightening. Or maybe He wanted to humiliate me. JUST KIDDING!!! (Seriously, if you think God is like that, please get help.)
What are Psalms anyway, and why are they in the Book? As far as I can tell, and I'm no scholar (which those of you who read my blog already know)...Psalms is not really a book of doctrine. It is more a glimpse into the reality of spiritual experience, the highs and the lows of walking with God. David had a lot of both, and he wrote a lot of psalms. Through his transparent writings, I realize God must find our emotions important, or I don't think they would have made it into the Book. God called David a man after His own heart, implying they were good friends.
Interestingly, the book of Job directly precedes Psalms. Talk about emotions! This guy was miserable too, through no fault of his own (try telling his pals that), and he was pouring his heartache out before the Lord.
I think we can learn a lot from both David and Job about what faith and friendship look like.
Job was suffering, so his buddies came along to "minister" to him. (Ministry means trying to fix someone else and make them straighten up, right?)
Now, if "faith" pleases God, who was exercising faith in this story? Was it Job? Was his comment "The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord" a perfect example of faith? (That's the type of faith we often see modeled in present day Christianity. No matter what you are going through, or how awful you feel, God's desires faith, so buck up and quote a Scripture, praise God.)
Or maybe his pals were really the more faithful ones? They were defending God, after all. They were convinced that Job was going through his nightmare because he must have sin in his life. (Is defending God an example of faith? Is judging sin an example of faith?)
Here's an interesting detail of the story of Job which was brought to my attention recently. They all shared the mistaken view that God causes suffering...Job figured God is God, He can mess with us if He likes...his pals thought God punishes sin by doling out suffering. But notice this detail: Even though Job says some really harsh and untrue things about God and to God, it's his friends God rebukes, saying, "I am angry with you because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has." Wait a minute, wasn't Job also wrong in his accusations against God's character? Here's God saying Job spoke of Him what is right. What did He mean?
The original Hebrew word here for "right" has the implication of "something that is straight." So, depending on the context the word can have the connotation of "straightforward" or "honest." It would appear that God was saying to Job's buddies, "I am not impressed with your pious religious blather, persecuting Job in my defense. But Job...at least he was being honest with me. He was expressing to me what was in his heart. My servant Job is a straight shooter." God likes that! Why? Because first and foremost, God wants relationship with us! And how can we have relationship without being honest? (God desires truth in the inward parts...Psalm 51:6)
True faith...the kind of faith God desires, is trusting that while we may not enjoy everything that happens in our world, we can go to God with it all...the good and the bad...because He is always there, never turning us away!!
I learn from Job and David that the kind of faith that pleases God is faith that trusts Him with our hearts! God wants to be my heart-friend!
And from Job's buddies, I learn a lot about friendship. I learn what ministry doesn't look like. I learn what to do, and what not to do, when someone I love is suffering:
Instead of being fearful that my loved one is being too emotional, I can be free to cry with them. Jesus said to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. To everything, there is a season...
Instead of quoting Scripture to a friend in pain, I can just listen and show I care. (Honestly, a Bible verse is not a cure-all magic healing potion. We all draw comfort from the Scriptures, but to pull one out and recite it to someone in pain rarely brings comfort.)
Instead of trying to "fix" my friend by correcting them, I can trust that if there is correcting to be done, God will do it, as He did with Job.
And instead of comparing my suffering with theirs, I can have compassion. When a loved one is going through a difficult time, the last thing they need to hear is how much worse I have it than them. Life is not a contest.
I can just "be" with a friend in her suffering. I can serve her, offer as much understanding as I can, pray for her, and love her through it until she has clearer understanding of God. That's the kind of friend I want to be.
Faith and friendship. Faith...that another can be trusted with my heart. This is relationship.
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