How to be a friend

Read awesome Post:  What if I am Never Healed? by Brittany Bettger.

Oh, the painful words of those who assume it is OUR LACK OF FAITH that prevents God from "healing us".  How we box God in! I think of Job's friends who came to him in his distress. At first they had compassion on him, but soon they blamed Job for his own suffering. What was God's reaction?

"After the LORD had finished speaking to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite: 'I am angry with you and with your two friends, for you have not been right in what you said about me, as my servant Job was.'"  

Job was right. His suffering was largely unexplainable. It did not make human sense. But God allowed it still. Why? Perhaps for a similar reason that Jesus gave for the blind man:

"His disciples asked him, 'Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?'  'Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, 'but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.'" (John 9:2)

Can it be that praise might be give to God because of Job's faithfulness in the midst of suffering? Cannot the process of suffering as well as the healing glorify God? I just rediscovered this verse:

"We give great honor to those who endure under suffering.  Job is an example of a man who endured patiently. From his experience we see how the Lord's plan finally ended in good, for he is full of tenderness and mercy." (James 5:11)

Job never got the answer to his "WHY GOD?"  But God did answer.  He answered with Himself.  Job grew closer to God through his suffering.  His Faith grew stronger.  And I bet from that time on, he became a very compassionate and understanding friend able to comfort others in their distress. What's the rest of the story.

And So the LORD blessed Job in the second half of his life even more than in the beginning." (Job 42:12)

Let us remember too, as Paul says in Romans, that our second half of life (an eternal second half) will be full of infinite blessing:

"I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will  be revealed in us." (Romans 8:18)

Perhaps then, even the bitter moments may have a taste of sweetness.  If nothing, if we allow them, our sufferings can make us  more understanding and loving of our fellow sufferers.