I read the book of Job about once each year, and each time, I find myself getting frustrated with Job’s friends. The old saying “with friends like these, who needs enemies?” always comes to mind.

But I believe that reading these exchanges are meant to force us to think about how we handle people who think they know what is going on in our life and try to make suggestions, help us see what we might be missing, or tell us what we should or shouldn’t be doing. Do we respond with love and kindness? Do we have grace with them? Do we get into unhealthy spiritual debates?

On the other hand, we should also do a heart-check to see if we have handled a situation like Job’s friends handled him, where we are doling out advice to someone without checking with God first to make sure we should even be talking.

It’s important to hear from God first before giving advice to family, friends, or anyone we cross paths with. Being guided by the Lord’s wisdom rather than our own is how we best help others. If we are not Spirit-guided, the other person’s ears will not be opened to what we are saying anyway, or worse, they may hear us and our advice could be harmful to them.