Pray For Your Friends

Job 42:10 ESV

10 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.

Job was put through many trials to test his faithfulness. Eventually Job was restored much of what he lost, but there were some major speed bumps along the way.

Besides his wife who told him to curse God and die, Job had to deal with three friends who were convinced that Job must have been guilty of heinous sin. Each friend berated him with accusations and each time Job would reply a little more frustrated and a little more exhausted.

We know of course that Job’s torment was not because of any sin he had committed but instead was for the testing of his faith. God eventually answers Job and reminds Job that God is sovereign and present even in the storm.

God then condemns those rotten friends of Job, as he tells them they have sinned against Job. It is in this part of the story I want us to take special note. Job was asked to pray for his friends. He was asked to plead their case despite the fact that had treated him so poorly. Job was the one who had suffered, but God wanted Job to pray on behalf of his friends. Certainly it would seem more logical the other way around, surely they should pray for Job. God uses Job’s suffering to teach us an extremely important lesson.

Sometimes when we are suffering or being wronged we become so hyper focused on ourselves and our pain that we forget to pray for those who would seek our harm. Though these men wronged Job, they were still his friends. They made the situation worse in their own short sightedness.

Because of their failure they needed the prayers of Job despite him being the one wronged. Notice verse 10 again “and the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends”.

When we are so tempted to be focused on ourselves and our own pain, we need to look outward and see how we can pray for our friends and even those who wrong us. Let’s be careful to focus on the needs of others and not just our own. Let’s pray for our friends and our enemies, that each of us may be restored.