1st Thessalonians 5
Prayer Connect
TM
Always Pray
"Don't Cease"
5/27/26
Author: Dr. S. Edwards
Don't DEEPEN the WOUNDS!
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Don't DEEPEN the WOUNDS!
In Part 3 of "The Art of Supplication" (T.A.O.S.), we discussed the story of Hannah and how in her despair, she cried out to God. Hannah was in great anguish because she desired to have children, but she was unable to conceive. And what made her anguish worse was that her husband Elkanah, who loved her deeply, had another wife, Peninnah, who constantly taunted Hannah about her not being able to bear children. Although her husband made an effort to treat her better than He did Peninnah because he loved her and perhaps was sympathetic because she could not conceive, this did not give Hannah hope. It did not calm her hurt or soothe her pain. As we highlighted in "T.A.O.S. (Pt. 3)", Hannah wanted what she wanted.
In her despair, Hannah makes a bold move and does what Jesus instructs us all to do when burdened. Hannah takes it to God. Hannah goes to the temple to pray. Hannah prayed and wept. And 1 Samuel 1:12-18 reads as follows:
As she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart; only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard. Therefore Eli took her to be a drunken woman. And Eli said to her, 'How long will you go on being drunk? Put your wine away from you.' But Hannah answered, 'No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.' Then Eli answered, 'Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him.' And she said, 'Let your servant find favor in your eyes.' Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad (NIV).
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As we journeyed "T.A.O.S. (Pt. 3)", we began to briefly expound on Eli's judgment of Hannah. Eli assumed Hannah to be drunk and approached her asking, "How long she would continue being drunk" and told her to put away her wine. Hannah does not lash out at Eli, nor does she allow His misjudgment to upset her, but she gently explains to Eli that she was praying and crying out to God in her anguish. She made him aware that there were some things in her spirit that she was trying to take care of. She made it known to Eli that she was not drunk but that she was seeking God's face. In recognizing her state of despair, many of us would have probably understood if she lashed out at Eli or got upset with him for accusing her of being drunk. However, Hannah kept her focus on God.
Fortunately, Eli's misjudgment of what Hannah was doing did not deter her from God. It did not add fuel to the fire. But how many of us have experienced situations in which someone's words did just that, added fuel to the fire? Have you ever found yourself in a bind or in despair and along came someone with their opinion of you or your circumstance that sent you deeper in despair than you already were? Or have you ever said the wrong thing to someone who was trying to fight their way through a trial, and your poor choice of words bruised them more than they already were? We must be careful how we approach people, the assumptions that we make, and the words that we choose to say to them, when they are wounded, because we can mistakenly deepen the wound of an already bruised soul. Let's Explore!
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Miserable Comforter are Ye!
“I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all...
My friends scorn me; my eye pours out tears to God, that he would argue the case of a man with God,
as a son of man does with his neighbor"
-Job 16:2,21-22 (ESV)
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We might all be familiar with the story of Job. He is no stranger to our blog. But just in case you are not familiar with his story, a brief overview is provided in Part One of "The Transformation of Thanks". Job was a man whom God considered to be upright. He was noble and of outstanding character. He had riches and wealth. He was admired. Job feared God and there was no
evil in him or about him, yet God allowed satan to test him knowing that no matter what Job endured, he would not turn his back on Him. No matter what Job faced, HE WOULD NOT CURSE GOD. God was confident in Job's faithfulness toward Him.
Upon finding himself in utter turmoil after losing all of his children, his servants, and all his livestock and then having his body physically attacked leaving him in severe pain, upon hearing of his tragedies and anguish, his friends decide to pay him a visit. Job's friends were supposed to be comforting and mourning with him. However, as we read the account of Job's story, his friends did everything but comfort him. If anything, they made Job's mourning worse.
Job's friends were supposed to be there to comfort him, but they spent more time trying to dissect why he was going through what he was going through. Instead of comforting him they spent more time blaming him by telling him that him being too much of this or too little of that, led to him being in the position that he was in. His friends went across the board with accusations of blame. He was told that he was wrong for being faint-hearted. He was told that perhaps he had done something sinful. He was told that he needed to repent. He was told that maybe he was not as righteous as he thought he was. He was accused of maybe not truly knowing God.
Nothing about what his friends told him was comforting or encouraging, which is why Job referred to them as "miserable comforters". Here Job is having lost everything and is physically wasting away, and their idea of comfort is to speak defeat and failure over him as if he had not already suffered enough. Their idea of comfort was to label Job based on where he was.
Their idea of comfort was labeling Job by tying him to his circumstances. As upright as they knew Job to be, the minute Job began to experience calamity and tragedy in his life, they considered him sinful, not realizing that God was allowing Job to be tested because God considered him holy. Job's friends were supposed to be helping him to make sense of where he was and they themselves were lost. Their reasoning as to why Job found himself in the despair that he was in was as far away from truth as they could have possibly been. Job's friends had no empathy, no compassion, and nothing positive to say to him. But in their hearts, they really thought that they were helping him. They really thought that they were shedding light on his unfortunate circumstance. They perhaps did not mean any harm, but boy did their words pierce. However, Job was firm. No matter what his friends' accusations of him were, he held firm to the fact that it was God who was behind it and Job stood firm on the fact that he was blameless. As much as Job searched himself, he could not find any wrongdoing that he partook in or any sin that would have been the cause for what he was experiencing. He stood firm on the fact that God had an answer as to why.
Let's reflect on some of the sentiments of Job as highlighted in scripture.
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The Sentiments of Job...
“What is mankind that you make so much of them, that you give them so much attention, that you examine them every morning and test them every moment?
Will you never look away from me, or let me alone even for an instant? If I have sinned, what have I done to you, you who see everything we do?
Why have you made me your target?
Have I become a burden to you?
Why do you not pardon my offenses and forgive my sins? For I will soon lie down in the dust; you will search for me, but I will be no more."
-Job 7:17-21
“I have become a laughingstock to my friends, though I called on God and he answered
—a mere laughingstock, though righteous and blameless!"
-Job 12:4 (NIV)
“So how can you console me with your nonsense? Nothing is left of your answers but falsehood!”
-Job 21:34 (NIV)
“How long will you torment me and crush me with words? Ten times now you have reproached me; shamelessly you attack me. If it is true that I have gone astray, my error remains my concern alone. If indeed you would exalt yourselves above me and use my humiliation against me, then know that God has wronged me and drawn his net around me."
-Job 19:1-6 (NIV)
"As surely as God lives, who has denied me justice, the Almighty, who has made my life bitter, as long as I have life within me, the breath of God in my nostrils, my lips will not say anything wicked, and my tongue will not utter lies. I will never admit you are in the right; till I die, I will not deny my integrity.
I will maintain my innocence and never let go of it; my conscience will not reproach me as long as I live."
-Job 27:1-6 (NIV)
In reviewing the above sentiments of Job, how many times have you found yourself there? In that place that feels like you've been forsaken by God. In a place where you know without a shadow of doubt that while you're not perfect, you've been doing all that you can to please God. You've been 'faithing', trusting Him, obeying all that He's told you to do. You've been praying and staying on the right path, and yet TURMOIL has greeted you and it won't detach itself no matter how much you moan
or cry out to God for both help and answers as to why you're there.
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You find yourself wondering if God will ever give you a break from upset and tragedy. You begin to feel like you're the only one on God's radar because while you're struggling, everyone around you appears to be blessed with no stress and pointing their finger at you!
How often have you grown weary because while you're hanging on to God, the people that you expect to comfort you, are pulling you down in a pit called, "You Did It To Yourself"? And just when you think they've said all that they care to say and that they are about to help you get out of the pit, they then try to bury you in sins that are nothing more than false claims that they are using to verify and support their opinion that you deserve your turmoil! Your loved ones instead of trying to build you up are trying to destroy your credibility and your pride because they feel that because of the catastrophic place that you are in, they now have advantage over you. They feel like you have fallen from grace. They feel like because you're the one who always had it all together, and tried to always do what was right, your being in this chaos that you're in gives them a pass to consider themselves superior to you because they see what you're going through as skeletons coming out of your closet when in fact it's only God opening doors to release increase into your life.
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Have you ever gotten to a point in which you didn't even trust those who were close to you to console you because they were far from understanding both your place and your pain? Have you ever grown tired of the lies about you that those around you were trying to force you to own?
At what point if any, did you decide to denounce their false claims about who and where you were and stand firmly in your assurance of who you were to God and who He was to you?
When people are going through the trials of life, they don't need our judgment, they need our encouragement. When something unfortunate happens to us, many of us preach, proclaim, and testify that God has a plan. Yet when something unfortunate happens to someone else we so easily forget about that plan that we proclaimed God to have and we JUDGE. We ridicule. We point the finger and consider people sinful. We begin to wonder if they're as good a person as they've always appeared to be because what they are going through seems like punishment. How easily we can flip the script. Woe is us when we endure but sinful is everybody else when life bombards them with chaos.
Job's friend thought they were comforting him, but they were instead frustrating his wounds. Job was not only fighting his way through his circumstance, but he was fighting against his friends' assumptions as to why he was there which proved to be false. If truth be told, in Job 1, if we weren't made aware that God was the one who told satan to consider Job and allowed havoc to be wreaked on Job because He was confident in Job's faithfulness to Him, how many of us would have believed that Job was an upright man? Without knowing that God initiated the attack on Job because He knew Job to be blameless, how many of us as we read through the narrative and learned of all Job was enduring, would have thought that Job had perhaps done something wrong? How many of us without knowing that God was behind Job's suffering would have thought that perhaps Job had a sinful pass? How many of us would have maybe thought that maybe much like Jonah, Job had disobeyed God or that he had sinned against Him? How many of us would have judged Job's wounds?
We quite often think that we are comforting our wounded loved ones. We think that we are helping to soothe their wounds, when in fact what we at times are actually doing whether intentionally or unintentionally, are judging their wounds and making them deeper than what they already are.
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Judge Ye Not!
"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment" -John 7:24 (NIV).
If we reflect back on Eli, he was so quick to judge Hannah based on what he thought she was doing. He looked at her appearance and automatically drew an opinion about her. And if we really reflect on it, what is interesting is the following...
If we go back to 1 Samuel 1:12-13 which states, "As she kept on praying to the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was praying in her heart, and her lips were moving but her voice was not heard. Eli thought she was drunk" (NIV).
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Was the reason that Eli assumed Hannah to be drunk due to him having often observed drunk people who exhibited the same demeanor and behavior as Hannah? Or is it that Eli never experienced anyone supplicate and cry out to God in the way that Hannah did? Was it that Eli had too many encounters with drunk people or too little encounters with people who had a relentless will to cry out to God and make their prayers known to Him? Had Eli ever witnessed the desperation in someone needing
to get their prayers to God?
Appearance can be both misleading and dangerous! There is a reason that Jesus warned against it. It is easy for us to judge someone or something based on appearance. It is easy for us to judge based on what we're used to. It is also easy for us to judge based on what we've never experienced. And because all these things can lead us down the wrong road as well as to false opinions and assumptions, judgment is better left to the only one who has the sovereignty, omnipotence, and omnipresence to judge wisely and without flaw, which is GOD AND GOD ALONE!
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Matthew 7:1-2 states, "Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you" (NIV).​ While we mentioned in "T.A.O.S. (Pt. 3)", that Eli had some flaws of his own that he needed to address, we did not go into much detail about these flaws.
Eli was a high priest. And although Eli was a high priest, his sons were corrupt and wicked. His sons acted wickedly against God and Eli being aware of their wrongdoing, did not rebuke them. God had already made Eli aware that judgment would come upon his family, but in 1 Samuel 3, God uses Samuel, the son that He had blessed Hannah to conceive, to confirm the judgment against Eli and his household that God had already warned about. In 1 Samuel 3:11-14, we read the following:
And the Lord said to Samuel: 'See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle. At that time I will carry out against Eli everything I spoke against his family—from beginning to end. For I told him that I would judge his family forever because of the sin he knew about; his sons blasphemed God, and he failed to restrain them. Therefore I swore to the house of Eli, ‘The guilt of Eli’s house will never be atoned for by sacrifice or offering (NIV).
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While Eli was quick to judge Hannah, Samuel was not quick to judge Eli's actions. Samuel had a fond respect for Eli as Hannah indeed dedicated him to the Lord just as she had promised, and because of such, Eli was like a mentor to Samuel. In a sense, Samuel trained under Eli. Samuel was a child when God began to use him. When God told Samuel to speak these words to Eli, Samuel was fearful. However, 1 Samuel 3:17-18 reads, "What was it he said to you?' Eli asked. 'Do not hide it from me. May God deal with you, be it ever so severely, if you hide from me anything he told you.' So Samuel told him everything, hiding nothing from him. Then Eli said, 'He is the Lord; let him do what is good in his eyes" (NIV).
Now while we did argue that perhaps Eli meant no harm in his judging Hannah and that as high priest, he perhaps felt the need to correct any behaviors that he thought defiled the sanctity of the temple, and while many might understand Eli's doing so, Eli's misjudgment of Hannah speaks to how easy it is to misjudge or rebuke when the acts or people are not connected to us. Look how easily Eli misjudged and rebuked Hannah who was innocent yet failed to correct his sons who had actually committed a sin. How easy it is to judge and rebuke someone else's significant other, spouse, parent, child, pastor, teammate, friend, or relative, until we are faced with one of our very own acting even more wicked or out of order than the person that we ourselves were judging or trying to bring fault against.
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What would it have looked like if amidst Eli rebuking Hannah, someone interrupted and rebuked him? When people misjudge whether with good or bad intent, they must still be careful. Even if we might mean well, we must ask God to lead and guide us in these matters and ask Him to give us discernment as to how to address matters in which we either believe or assume that someone needs correcting. Ecclesiastes 12:14 states, "For God will bring every act to judgment, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil" (NIV). In God using Samuel to confirm the judgment that God had already told Eli he would receive, it was of good character that Eli insisted that Samuel speak to him whatever words God had given him. Many of us at times might find ourselves being fearful or hesitant when God instructs us to speak words or deliver a message to someone and the message is one that we feel the person might not want to hear. Eli encouraged Samuel not to hold back what God had spoken. This act alone was instrumental and of extreme importance because God had purposed Samuel to be a prophet and Samuel would need to be firm, brave, and fearless in speaking whatever words that God would give him, regardless of who God instructed him to speak them to.
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Whether we have spoken the wrong words or made the wrong assumptions about someone who was experiencing hardship or whether someone has spoken the wrong words or passed judgment on us due to our having become the bearer of unfortunate circumstances, WE ALL MUST BE CAUTIOUS as to how we approach those who are wounded. We must depend on and allow God to guide us concerning what we say and how we interact with those who are enduring trials. Even if someone may be experiencing trials that are indeed due to their own poor choices and sinful behaviors, or bad decisions, it does not give us the right to hurl, "IT'S YOUR FAULT!", "YOU DESERVE IT!", or "I TOLD YOU SO!", at them. Even if all of those things are true and what they are facing is indeed a result of their own actions, even if they might deserve it, and even if you told them so, at times we must learn to LET GOD BE THE JUDGE!
There may be times in which God might indeed lead us to rebuke or chasten that individual that is going through turmoil, and if and when that occurs, then we are to proceed as God tells us to because if God told us to do it, He backs us and we have the assurance that we are doing the right thing. However, if God does not lead us to be the rebuker of that individual, then we must ask God to lead us as to how to comfort that individual if He desires us to do so. Or we must simply pray for them and ask God to light their path, draw them closer to Him, and to carry them through. If your concern is that the individual was wrong and that they need to learn from their bad decisions and behaviors, then with good intention, ask God to show them where they went wrong and how they could get on the right path. It might be hard to do, especially concerning those that we love who might be hard-headed and determined to do things their way regardless of the costs involved, but we at some point must learn to let God be God and stop trying to take the gavel out of His hands.
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The truth is that at times, things happen to us not simply because of who we are, but because of who God is. What does that mean? It means that because God has very distinct plans for each and every one of us, we at times will be faced with challenges that might not seem to fit the lifestyle that we live. Job was upright, he was blameless, and God being confident in such, allowed him to be tested. God allowed some things to be stripped from Job knowing that His plan was always to give him more. The unwelcomed and at times unfathomable truth is that BAD THINGS HAPPEN TO GOOD PEOPLE and if we were to look at it from both angles, there are some GOOD THINGS THAT HAPPEN TO BAD PEOPLE. However, despite on which side we stand on, we must trust God through it, because when bad things happen to those who serve the Lord, who live their lives in a way that is pleasing to Him, and who place their hope and trust in Him, even those bad things work for our good. HE PROMISED US THAT! And we have every right to hold Him to His word and to hold on to His word as we fight our way through whatever comes our way.
Because we never know what pit, fire, lions' den, or test awaits us, we must be careful not to deepen the wounds of others who are trying their best to fight their way through as they hold on to God. And if you want to help someone who is experiencing an unfortunate circumstance make sense of where they are, ask God to give you sound knowledge, wisdom, and insight before you try to impart your 'personal wisdom', opinion, and false assumptions on them as Job's friend did to him. Even when we mean well, it might not make things well. Sometimes, our opinions and assumptions MAKE MATTERS WORSE!
​​If you currently find yourself in a place of relentless prayer because you are seeking God's face for healing, deliverance, restoration, provision, direction, guidance, or whatever need you might have, or if you are currently in a place of despair much like Job, in which it seems like your entire life has been turned inside out, and upside down, and the people around you are pointing fingers, and placing false accusations on both you and your circumstance, do yourself a favor... "SHUT THEM
OUT AND HOLD ON TO GOD!"
Don't allow where people think you are and why they think you're there to make you abandon the fact that God always has a plan regardless of where you are. Don't you allow anyone to make you believe that bad experiences and unsurmountable trials mean that you have sinned and that rough patches only happen to bad people. Seek God and let Him navigate you through your despair. If indeed you have fallen short, He'll reveal it to you and if you allow Him, He'll help you to get back on the right path. If you haven't fallen short and you have been doing all that you're supposed to do, God will strengthen you to keep moving forward even if He does not reveal the whys.
If you've kept your faith and have not lost sight of who you know God to be, regardless of where you are or why you're there, ALLOW NO ONE TO MAKE YOU DOUBT! And if you have friends and family members like Job's friends who want to come and throw you a pity party in which they're going to throw defeat, and prophesy lies over you and your circumstance, tell them to stay home because, "THERE ARE NO OPEN RESERVATIONS FOR THE PITY PARTY!". Then hang up, trust God, and plan your victory celebration!
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Explore
Ever found yourself in an unfortunate place and God speaks to you and commands you to come forth and "FIGHT YOUR WAY OUT", but you're thinking maybe He stopped at the wrong house because clearly there is nothing about you that screams "WARRIOR"? There is nothing about your situation that yells, "CONQUERABLE"? Remember, God makes NO MISTAKES, so He didn't get it wrong when He CHOSE YOU! Fear is natural but do us both a favor, TRUST GOD, Let Him Guide You, allow your fear to be consumed by FAITH and simply ARISE! Your ability to do so affects us all!
Does your circle motivate you or decrease your energy? Are the people that you roll with pushing you forward or pulling you back? Are you starting to realize that maybe it's time to detach from people in your life that are interfering with your destiny?
When we are innocent and we find ourselves being attacked, it is not easy to stand quiet, stand still, and LET GOD do the fighting because we feel like we have to defend our name, our character, and our reputation. But if you believe the story of Daniel in the Lions' Den and if you believe that God shut the mouth of the lions so that no harm could be inflicted upon him then you must also believe that
God WILL SHUT THE MOUTHS of your haters as well!