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I have heard many such things; miserable comforters are you all.

God love them, don’t trust your friends. Christians give the worst advice at times. “Girl, you deserve better than that.” “Just trade it in to get a lower payment.” “Get over it.” “God just wants you to be happy.” Listen to God’s word from the Scriptures. Be grateful that people care enough about you to share their opinions with you, but take them for what they are, opinions. They are leading with their feelings in stead of God’s Word. Always seek the Lord. Always confirm with the Bible what you should do. NEVER just follow your heart, it will lead you wrong every time. Our job isn’t to simply make people feel better, as Christians, we should want to lead people closer to Jesus. That’s speaking the truth in love.

I loathe my life; I will give free utterance to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.

Prayer needs to be honest. Our communication with God is not about our words, but it is sharing our hearts with the Lord. We don’t have to say the right things, but we do need to speak the truth. How do you feel? What is your emotional state? Try to put those feelings into words and then give them to God. There may not even be words to fully encapsulate what you feel, but you need to get it out. You need to tell God. Not for him, he already knows, but your you. Saying them out loud is helpful as well. If you’re going to pray it, you need to say it. Focus first on being honest with God, then you can move on to how to help and heal.

Has not man a hard service on earth, and are not his days like the days of a hired hand? Like a slave who longs for the shadow, and like a hired hand who looks for his wages, so I am allotted months of emptiness, and nights of misery are apportioned to me.

Life is not always easy. Following the Lord is not about making your life free of trouble. When you begin to feel the pressure, and it seems like everything is closing in on you, hang in there. Just like for Job, life can get very hard. Wave after wave of hardship can seem like more than you can handle, it’s not. You can make it. You may have to change some of your desires, you may have to let other things go, but we do have the promise of Jesus “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” He is always with you. If he is the one at the center of your life, you’ll never have more than you can bear. Trust in Jesus.

He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty.

To say that Job was having a bad day would be an understatement. He needed support from those whom he thought cared about him in this time more than ever, and it wasn’t there. When we turn our backs on our friends, that matters. How we treat other people is also how we treat God, especially fellow Believers today. Remember what Jesus said to Paul on the road to Damascus? “Why are you persecuting ME?” Do you remember what Jesus said in Matthew 25 how when you give a cup of cool water “to the least of these MY BROTHERS you’ve done it unto ME.” Treat others as you wish to be treated, but also understand, how you treat others is how you treat your Lord, don’t forsake Him.

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”

Satan and God are not fighting some kind of “cosmic battle” because there is no contest. He and his fallen angels with him only have as much power and ability which is granted to them by the Lord himself. Don’t misunderstand, Satan is powerful, but God is infinitely more. Take the devil seriously, but understand who you are with the Holy Spirit (if you’re a Believer). Satan is on a leash, he is not free to deceive whomever he wishes. Resist him, and he flees.