Job Found Restoration By Praying For Those Who Hurt Him

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Have you ever been hurt by someone you trusted? Maybe they did something that you thought they’d never do or broke trust when you confided in them? Hurt between people is no longer a thing of the world, in fact, it has been prevalent in the church and there are many people stuck in the root of unforgiveness towards people that have let them down and now the person is and reaping it’s bittersome results. For some it is problems with trust, anger or resentment, and often withdrawing from allowing themselves to anyone.

They suffer silently because they fear someone saying “You know sister or brother so and so has a problem with unforgiveness.” When in reality many of them don’t have a problem with it, it is that they haven’t learned how to forgive, on the inside, in a way that goes much deeper than simply saying, “I forgive you.” And they often feel anger that they are being addressed as unforgiving people instead of the people who have hurt them addressed as “selfish” for doing so. So the result is that not only is the person hurt from pain caused by someone else but without knowing how healing is possible.

For every person that is dealing with unforgiveness or searching for a way to find healing from the wounds that the hurt has left you with. God has given us an answer and it is a matter of us applying it to our life.

Job 42:10

“And the Lord restored Job’s losses when he prayed for his friends. Indeed the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.”

Reading the story of Job and the immense trials he endured during his life, one can’t help but sympathize with him. How could a man who put his trust in God have gone through such difficulties? But we see at the end of Job’s life God had given Job twice as much as he had before. But when and how did Job receive God’s favor? When he prayed for his friends. Prayed for his friends? “How?” you ask. The man must have first felt forgotten about by God himself and then he’s being ordered to pray for those who he has lost trust in, friends that had let him down.

How many times in our lives are we let down by people we have trusted. Maybe it was a friend, family member or spouse and have witnessed first hand that broken trust not only severed relationships but it inflicts feelings of anger, hurt, resentment and often bitterness. We stand our ground and make a promise to ourselves that we are not going to allow anyone to hurt us that way again. It seems it would be easier to walk away from the situation than allow the same pain to possibly happen again or better yet let down our pride to forgive them, and you’d probably have some people ushering you on that it would be the best thing for you to do. However God had a different plan for Job….pray for them!

From Job’s prayers he received the favor of the Lord and He restored Job’s losses. What was the purpose of God asking Job to pray for them? I suppose there was more than just one reason; in fact there are two that come to mind. The first is that Job’s prayers brought Him healing and blessing. Job could have stomped his feet and said, “Lord you saw what they did, it isn’t even worth me forgiving them, perhaps they could care less if I do.” And job could have a good point in both those answers, after all isn’t it his due right to want to distance himself and be angry at friends that have done him wrong. If they cared wouldn’t they have expressed how they wanted Job to forgive them?

The second reason God ordered Job’s to pray for them, I believe, was God’s way of healing the hurt that Job felt. When we pray for those who have wronged us, it helps to heal our wounds and secondly we recognize that their inability to recognize the feelings of others, must mean they need our prayers more than we think. If someone in our life does us wrong, whether they acknowledge it or not, the bottom line is either :

A. They are in need of compassion to relate to the feelings and hurts they inflict on others.

B. The wisdom to choose the right thing to do even when doing what is wrong may seem like a good option.

I strongly believe that in each of us there are hurts caused by other people. Some of which we wish we could erase from our memory and perhaps we have made a conscious choice to forgive them. But forgiveness is a process that needs divine intervention from God and just as God told Job, I believe he is telling us as well…..To pray for them. It may not be easy, they may not even feel they need it, but if you are in a place where you can’t get past the hurts that have been done to you God can get you past them. Pray for them and watch God’s hand move in your life.

Please keep in mind that willing choosing not to forgive place restrictions between you and God. The bible clearly instructs us that if we do not forgive others their trespasses God will not forgive us. Is any hurt worth placing a separation between you and God? And he gives us this commandment because he loves us. Because he wants us to be healed and restored not walking around in fear of future pain caused by others. He is there to help us to forgive….when we ask