As I sat in bible study today, I began to challenge the group to remember that while prayer is important and powerful, God uses people to answer prayer. That to simply pray God would comfort the suffering is to miss the point of Jesus' ministry. WE are to comfort the suffering as God's arms and ears. We are to provide through our abundance and gratitude. God uses people and He never intended us to walk alone.
My class simply debated with the typical religious answers that have been indoctrinated in so many over the years. Pray more. Give more. Seek God more. Sin less. Sounds to me like Job's friends who started out right by listening and ended up offending God by rambling solutions that do not reflect knowledge of His ways.
I have suffered and I have reached out. And, constantly I am faced with these "Job's Friends" answers that are shallow. I am looking for authenticity and so is God. That is what God saw in Job, among other things. He saw a man who was authentic with himself, his God and his friends.
We lack authenticity in our churches today. And, once again, I am finding I must keep looking for that rare church who can operate in authenticity so that love may abound more completely and correctly.
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