Lesson from Job - swift to hear, slow to speak

I think one of the most unusual books in the Bible would be Job. Many people wonder, "why is it there?" Why do we need to read 37 chapters of bad advice from Job's friends, trying to make sense of what has happened to their friend.

The interesting thing I found was that much of what they say, to be honest, sounded a lot like me when I talked to people going through hard times. When we talk to people going through suffering, often our many words ends up hurting rather than helping them. Sometimes God may want us to stay silent as part of our counsel, rather than recklessly throwing in our two cents. I was reminded of this during the last few weeks. There were two incidences that I found myself talking to someone who is suffering, but realising that I didn't have much to say that would not sound too different to Job's friends.  There are things that God will sometimes do that we are not able to understand at the time, and neither will our friends. Instead, our encouragement could just be that a good and loving God will do what is most good and loving.