[Faith-talk] {Spam?} Daily Thought for Friday, May 20 2016 and a Followup Announcement To the Lions Radio Show

[Paul Smith]

Hello my fellow saints of the Most High God, no matter where you live 
in the world.  Hope all is going well with you today as you read this 
message, by God's matchless grace and His providential care.

Before I give you the daily thought article selected for today, I'd 
like to mention that if you have the WCBM app on your iPhone device, 
that you can use that to listen to the station.  I'd get the app and 
see if you can hear it before Sunday at about 7:06 PM eastern time to 
ensure that you won't miss a word of what we are going to tell the 
radio listening audience, and perhaps you'd even like to call in and 
ask questions or make a comment.  It promises to be an interesting hour.

Now to the selected article for today.  Written by Harriet Michael, a 
resident of Kentucky when this article was originally written, it is 
entitled "Job's Restoration:  A Lesson In Prayer," rendered as follows:

The book of Job is very familiar to most Christians.  However, there is 
a special lesson about prayer buried in Job's story that may not be so 
familiar.  In fact, this little nugget of wisdom is usually overlooked 
by those reading or studying the book of Job.  To find this nugget, it 
is helpful to briefly recall Job's story.

Job experienced tremendous adversity.  He lost his children, his 
personal wealth, and even his health.  In fact, he lost everything 
except his wife and his faith.  During his trials, Job's friends were 
anything but helpful.  In fact, they drew God's anger with their 
notoriously bad advice and false statements.  Nevertheless, at the end 
of the book, God did a work of restoration in Job's life.

Job 42:7-10 says:  "The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite:  My wrath is 
kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not 
spoken of Me what is right, as my servant Job has ... And my servant 
Job shall pray for you, for I will accept his prayer not to deal with 
you according to your folly ... So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the 
Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what the Lord had told 
them; and the Lord accepted Job's prayer.  And the Lord restored the 
fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends; and the Lord gave Job 
twice as much as he had before."

Eliphaz, Bildad and Zophar were three of Job's closest friends; but 
unfortunately, they offered him very poor advice throughout his 
personal ordeal.  At the end of the book, God held them accountable for 
their poor advice while at the same time exonerated Job.  This is how 
most people remember the story's end.  The friends face the truth of 
their shortcomings, Job is honored, and God restores back to Job twice 
as much as he had before.  This understanding of the end of Job's story 
is accurate, but there is something more.  I think there is a profound 
lesson on prayer hidden away in the story of God's restoration of Job.

Let's reread the last verse of this passage, "And the Lord restored the 
fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job 
twice as much as he had before" (Job 42:10).  Is it more obvious now? 
The restoration of Job's fortunes occurred when he prayed for his 
friends.  I don't think this was a mere coincidence.  It contains a 
lesson about the importance of praying for others.

It is certainly alright to pray for oneself.  This truth is 
demonstrated many times in the Bible--Hannah's prayer to conceive is 
one such example.  But nonetheless, it is very important to pray for 
others even if we ourselves are also in dire need of prayer.  Job did 
this.  He was asked to do this by God.

My prayer group jokingly calls this the "Job method" of praying.  We 
tease that our prayers for others are selfishly motivated because we 
are hoping that like Job, God will restore our fortunes too as we pray 
for our friends.

There is no simple formula to prayer.  The study and practice of prayer 
is multifaceted--but the importance of praying for others is one facet 
we would do well to remember.

Now, those are wise words from a wise lady, in my opinion.  We who are 
members of the Interactive Christian Community
http://www.iccsite.com)
have a room over there called the Upper Room, and every day, Monday 
through Friday at 8:30 AM eastern time and perhaps at other times of 
the day, some of us gather for prayer for others.  Now I can't say how 
God has blessed us as we gather to do this, but I can say with absolute 
certainty that He has blessed the undersigned in his life pilgrimage.  
There are three pastors reading this, and I hope that it has given them 
food for thought in the preparation of future sermons before their 
respective congregations.

And that will do for today.  Until tomorrow when, Lord willing another 
Daily Thought message and article will be posted, may the God of 
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and 
collectively, in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian 
friend and brother, Paul