What Circles are We Running In

In this episode we touch on Job who had what seemed like good friends in the beginning. In the end, his "circle" had angered God. How does this affect our race? Listen to find out!

Transcript

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Hey guys, it's Animaris. Welcome back to another episode of Running Our Race. And today I want to talk to y'all or what I'm gonna title this is circles. And when we think of circles as far as race goes, when you think about like a track, you know, like um or like you circle back around to where you started. So that's kind of tying it into race, obviously. The more I thought about it, I was like, no, I don't think I want to talk necessarily about that. I want to I want to talk about friend circles. In the Bible, there's a lot of verses. Uh I'm gonna grab a few of them that talk about friendship. They're mainly in Proverbs, but the last one is in a different book, which is gonna be the main book that we're gonna be in. At Proverbs 17, 17, it says, a friend loves at all times and a brother is born for adversity. In Proverbs 18, 24, it says, A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there's a friend who sticks closer than a brother. In Proverbs 27, 6 it says, Faithful are the wounds of a friend, perfused are the kisses of an enemy. In Proverbs 13, 20, it says, Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm. And lastly, uh Job 6.14 says, He who withholds kindness from a friend forsakes the fear of the Almighty. Obviously, what we get from all of this is choose your friends wisely, basically. When we think of the story of Job, we know that he went through a lot. He lost a lot, uh, probably a lot more than maybe all of us combined have lost. I was listening to a preaching maybe like a month ago, and I remember just hearing the story, and I hadn't seen it this way. You know, we always hear about Job and how he suffered and everything. Very few people have ever brought up his friends. What they shared, I'm gonna share it at the end. But I want to get into some of the Bible verses before I start explaining. In Job 2, 11 to 13, it says, Now when Job's three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon him, they came each from their own place. Eliphas the Timenite, Bildad the Shutite, and so far the Namite. And they made an appointment together to come show him sympathy and comfort him. And when they saw him from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their voices and wept. And they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads towards heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him. And they saw that his suffering was great. Now, right there, very beginning, I think that they were great friends. I think that what they did, they they wept with him. They started out good. Like, like that would that's being a good friend right there. There's a verse that says cry with those who cry, right? Or weep with those who weep. Like we can see that their heart was sympathetic, how it said there in the Bible verse. But they spend quite a few chapters going back and forth with Job. A lot of it is complaints, and honestly, I'm gonna be honest with y'all, I skipped through a lot of it when I'm reading it right now. Um, I was like, man, bro, they just keep complaining, and like a lot of times like it was kind of like bro, what did you do wrong? Like, what made you get there? And I'll see you on my own life right now because honestly, before I just I didn't make this, I was I'm I'm lucky there's a situation that I went through, and I've been like, bro, what did I do wrong? And I've been kinda going back and forth about it, and now I don't think about it. I'm like, man, it's like if I'm the three friends and I'm also Job towards the end. Uh in Job 32, 3. God burned with anger at Job's three friends because they had found no answer, although they had declared Job to be in the wrong. I was actually thinking about this the other day. How quick are we to look at other people and think about what they're like their actions and how quick are we to judge them? And we never self-reflect, or like we don't take the time to self-reflect and be like, oh, we've done that, or we've done something similar, or we never think to ourselves, like, hey, before we judge them, maybe there's a possibility that one day I can I'll come I'll be confronting this exact situation as this person, and I'll respond the exact same way, or worse. When Jesus, you know, he stopped everyone from basically throwing the first stone at the the the woman. We are so quick to throw those stones before we even think to evaluate ourselves. In this instance, obviously, Job wasn't wrong. A lot of times we end up being wrong. You know, there's there's a few men in the Bible that God says are righteous and that they're doing the right things, and I generally believe that, you know, like it was it was a trial for him, and imagine like on top of that, like going through everything that he went through, and then your friends are attacking you after they just spent like seven days being sympathetic to you. That's crazy. In 42, 7 to 9, God is basically still mad. We're talking about 10 whole chapters later, and God is still mad. Um, but he had talked to Job and they basically they they came to the same agreement and they were like, okay, okay, okay, I I think I get it now. Um, I get what you want me to do now, God. I get why I went through this, and you know, like, which another point, like sometimes we don't understand uh why we go through certain trials, but at the end of it we get it, and it's just that we had to talk to God, or instead of listening to our friends, I didn't think about this until right now. Wow, that's crazy. Like, we really don't think about it. Like, we're too busy talking to our friends when we should have gone to God first. Let me read the Bible verse. Uh, Job 42, 7 to 9. After the Lord has spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphiz the Temenite, My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. Now therefore, take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and offer up a burnt offering for yourselves, and my servant Job shall pray for you. For I will accept his prayer and not to deal with you according to your folly, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has. So Eliphaz the Temite, and Bill had so far went and did what the Lord had told them, and the Lord accepted Job's prayer. Now, right here is where I wanted to tie into the preaching I heard the other day. Apparently, this whole trial, like from what they said in this preaching, this whole trial was really that it was like a test, not just for Job, but his circle as well. And it was like if his friends basically would have prayed to God on behalf of Job and been like, Hey, uh, what what do you want him to do? Or what do you need from us as well? Like, we're here with Job, you know. Like, you know how the Bible says that he answers the prayers of like, like when people come together, like God is there, you know, in in his name, you know? And so all they had to do was literally go pray, ask God, what do you want from us? What do you want us to do? Like, what can we do to help alleviate the situation, you know, make it faster. All they had to do was give an offering. And when I heard this in this preaching, oh my god, I don't know why like I was like, What? That's crazy. Like he went through all that, and then he just like he had to hear all his friends complain and everything. All he had to do is go pray and then give an offering. We get to the end for real of what happened to Job, and it's in Job 42, 10, 11. There's still more verses after, but the main point of this is And then the Lord restored the fortunes of Job. And when he had prayed for his friends, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before, then came to him all his brothers and sisters, and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house, and they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. At the end of it, all these people just randomly pop out and they're like, what's up? Here's something with you in sympathy. And so on the flip side, we see like there are friends who are gonna be with you in the storm. They're gonna be with you in those tough times. Uh, but there's also gonna be friends who make the storm worse. Um, who make the trials that you go through worse. In that same way, to tie it into what the podcast is all about. There's people who are gonna make your erase, they're gonna make it worse. They're gonna make, you know, they're gonna complain, they're gonna blame you, make you wanna quit. There's other people that are gonna offer sympathy when you need it, they're gonna cry with you when you need it, they're gonna rejoice when you need it, they're gonna help you, they're gonna give you words of you know, to lift you up. And then there's people who when you get wins, when you get you know rewards along the way, they're gonna wanna come celebrate with you. And that's just part of it. But uh, I think that this should really be just a reminder to always choose you your friends wisely. And that's really all I have for today. I went a little longer. I don't know how I'm gonna edit this, but hopefully it's not that long of a video. But regardless, make sure to like, comment, and subscribe. And I'll catch y'all in the next one. Peace out.