Great Speech, BUT…
S. O. A. P.
Here’s Your 90 second AM Devotional!
S-cripture:
Job 26:2
How you helped the powerless! How you have saved the arm that is feeble!
O-bservation:
This response from Job was to his friend Bildad the Shuhite. Bildad had just lambasted Job for questioning God as to why he (Job) was in such a miserable condition. In fact, he ended his diatribe against Job by saying, “You’re a mere mortal in God’s eyes, nothing more than a maggot! You’re a human who is nothing more than a worm.”
A-pplication:
Job’s response to Bildad was simply, “Great Speech, BUT … what have you done to help those around you?” It’s so easy, if we’re not careful, to find fault in a hurting brother or sister. It’s so easy to tell them when they’re at their absolute lowest, “You Shoulda!” Or, “If it had been me, I would never have done what You did!” Or, “What were you thinking?” It’s so easy to pontificate when it’s not us that is hurting. Here’s Job’s friend speaking to a man who has lost ten children to death, and his business, and is ravaged by open sores on the entirety of his body, and the man says, “In God’s eyes you are nothing more than a maggot.” But why would anyone say that to a person so broken? I don’t ever want to put myself above someone who is hurting and tell them what they shoulda done. Because if I do, they will have the absolute right to look me in the face like Job looked at Bildad and say, “That’s A Great Speech, BUT … what have you done, Rich, to help the broken?”
P-rayer:
Dear Jesus,
Help me today to do more than sympathize with those who hurt. Instead, help me empathize with them until they have recovered. Amen
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