7 After the Lord had spoken to Job, he turned to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends because you have not spoken of me rightly, as has my servant Job. 8 Now, take seven bulls and seven rams, go to my servant Job, offer a holocaust for yourselves and let him pray for you. I will accept his prayer and excuse your folly in not speaking of me properly as my servant Job has done.” 9 Then Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did as the Lord had ordered. The Lord accepted Job’s intercession.
---- mine,
Job's friends were harsh, judgmental, know-it-all, prideful, and uncharitable. Their presence at a time when Job needed them to have compassion and quiet and steadfast companionship, they each tried to subtly condemn him. They were aware that he was a good, holy, upright, and just man who loved God, yet they implied unkindly that Job was being punished for sins that he was unwilling to acknowledge. They each argued with Job, talking at length as to why they believed that Job was being punished. This is not true. Not all your trials and suffering come as a direct punishment for your sins. Suffering is a necessary part of life, and no one can escape it. It is in this fiery furnace that all impurities are removed, and you are formed more and more in My image and likeness. Do not presume to know how God is acting in the lives of people you know or hear about. Or of calamities that are visited on people. What is needed is for you to pray and to intercede for those who are suffering, facing trials, difficulties, and are sick. They need your compassion and your prayers, and tangible help rather than your self-righteous reasons as to why they are suffering. Do not stop interceding for your own needs and, more importantly, for the needs of others and for the world. Let your prayers be accompanied by sacrifice, self-denial, and almsgiving. Have confidence that I will hear, and I will answer. Nothing pleases Me more than when you bring the needs of family members, friends, the Church, and the world to Me, and you pray with a heart filled with compassion for them. I tell you, ---- my own, even though the answer will be delayed in coming, I will hear, and I will do for them all you ask of Me in prayer. Nothing delights My Father and Me more than to give generously every good and perfect gift to those whom you ask and pray for sincerely and faithfully because you are Mine.
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