Misery Loves

I am reading in Job this morning and I am in the middle of the dialogue between Job and his friends. It is interesting how they try to give him a different perspective (not always accurately) and how he refutes everything that they say. What his friends say is not always encouraging, but they are trying to help. It is his position of refusal that allows him to keep wallowing in his pitiful emotions-at least until God answers him and gives him the right perspective.

I know that the key when we are struggling is to turn to God as He is the only one that can actually provide comfort. It was Job's example that showed me that most of the time when we are miserable, we become content with staying in that trap. It isn't so much that misery loves company. I've found that far too often (at least in my own life) that misery just loves misery. It causes us to stay in self-destructive patterns of depression, to lash out at those that are closest to us, and to become vindictive in thoughts and speech towards those that we feel have wounded us. When we don't allow God to intervene, this becomes a life-long characteristic that leads to an embittered existence that sucks the energy from other people.

The truth is that God desires more than that for us and is prepared to guide us out of that imprisonment. Can we show people the need to let Him be the solution?

"The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come that they might have life and have it to the full." John 10:10