Won’t you ever stop blowing hot air? What makes you keep on talking?
(Job 16:3 NLT)

As Christians, we sometimes believe that God deals with us on a strictly cause-and-effect basis. When we endeavor to help people with their struggles with this mentality, it will be just like blowing hot air.

Job’s friends counseled him that his trials would be removed if he stopped sinning. In actuality, his righteousness brought on his troubles (Job 1:6-10 NLT). In the big picture, we reap what we sow (Galatians 6:7 NLT), yet, in the details of your life, you sometimes reap what you don’t sow, and what you sow, you don’t reap. Read what the Psalmist says in Psalm 73 about the righteous and the unrighteous. Life is more complex than a simple cause-and-effect relationship.

We can only counsel someone once we have heard the agony of their heart. Job’s friends made the fundamental error we all make at times; they spoke too much and listened too little. Listening to someone’s grief can be the most effective therapy. Talking too much indicates that we feel like we have all the answers, which only God knows. Job’s friends spoke things that are generally true but do not apply to Job’s particular situation. Anytime we think we have all the answers, it shows we have very few.

Let a person talk, and they will generally tell you the answer to their problems. Job was a righteous man, but he did need some correction, as we all do. Job admits that he has been talking about things far too wonderful for him to understand (Job 42::3 NLT). Job says, “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes. I take back everything I said, and I sit in dust and ashes to show my repentance” (Job 42:5-6 NLT). Suffering opens our eyes to see God, repentance follows, and all our solutions fall into place.

Stop blowing hot air with all our solutions, and point them to God, who is the solution.

I worked for seventeen years as a missionary with Youth With A Mission.  My missionary work has taken me to Mexico, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Spain, and Ukraine.  I hold a Masters of Education in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Commonwealth University.  [email protected]