And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning. And he had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen, and 1,000 female donkeys. He had also seven sons and three daughters. And he called the name of the first daughter Jemimah, and the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. And in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job’s daughters. And their father gave them an inheritance among their brothers. And after this Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons, and his sons’ sons, four generations. And Job died, an old man, and full of days. (Job 42:10-17 ESV)
When Job prayed he got twice as much as he had before… His family returned to him, at least his brothers and sisters did and ate with him. He had so much more than he had ever had before…
But did you read what he prayed for? Job did not pray for God to bless him. He did not ask God to give him back what had been taken from him, or more than that to repay him for the suffering he had undergone… the Lord restored the fortunes of Job “when he had prayed for his friends”! Job was down because everything he had was taken from him, yet he does not get sucked into a mire of self pity, and ask for everything back and grovel and whine until he gets all he had and more. Job goes to the Lord to ask for the needs of his friends. He lifts his friends up in prayer because they are more important to him than himself. The needs of the others far out weigh his own needs. How many of us would be where Job is? Would we be praying for our own needs or for the needs of others? How many of us would be groveling asking for retribution for what had happened to us, when all God wants for us to do is think about the other, because they are far worse off than we are. I mean really we have God on our side, so what is going to happen to us? Everything we have here in this life might be stripped away, but we still have God and the Lord will never leave. We need to think of the other first, and foremost, so we might be a light to them of the love God has for them…
So pray for the other, your friends and don’t be self centered, because is your life really in a worse place than Job?
aSacredRebel 