help me help you

Spent hours at Cafe Ladro today lounging in a well-worn leather chair and devouring the book of Job and Matthew Henry's commentary. My heart was refreshed. I ended up making two lists: how to respond to affliction and how to comfort the afflicted.

My notes seem to indicate that there are only two types of people in this world... those who are suffering, and friends of the suffering people who almost always (often without realizing it) say the wrong thing.

Through studying this book I have become deeply convicted of what a little baby I am during suffering, as well as how much I have to learn about not being unhelpful to others when they suffer.

Some thoughts from today:

-Allow suffering people to speak freely about their sadness and frustration. Show grace and give them the benefit of the doubt. Make every effort to be a safe place for them to vent their feelings and questions without berating them or judging their character too harshly.

-"We must by prayer fetch in mercy and grace from God, though he contend with us. His favour we must seek when we have lost all we have in the world" (MHC, 523).

-"We cannot expect too little from the creature [humans] nor too much from the Creator. God will out-do our hopes as much as men come short of them" (MHC, 525).

-Better to die praying and praising than die complaining and arguing.

-If suffering people don't have the strength or will to serve God or be productive or help others, have compassion and encourage them to simply sit still in the presence of God.

-"'If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength, thy grace, is small' (Proverbs 24:10) but it does not therefore follow that thou hast no grace, no strength, at all" (MHC, 521).

-I can hate life for a season without ever losing my integrity and hating God.

-In affliction, don't wish for death. Remember that "life is our opportunity of glorifying God and getting ready for heaven" (MHC, 527).

-Love the Giver more than the gifts. "Though he slay me, I will hope in him" (Job 13:15).

-Give God the benefit of the doubt.

-"Peace is the house in which those dwell who dwell in God, and are at home in Him" (MHC, 524).