Just thought I’d share one thought from this weekend’s message. It takes tremendous spiritual discernment to know when to comfort and when to confront.

If you comfort when you should confront, you may be short-circuiting what the Holy Spirit is trying to do in someone’s life. By easing their pain you may facilitate or validate what’s wrong thereby prolonging the problem. If you confront when you should comfort, you may compound the problem and wound someone even deeper. Isn’t that what Job’s “friends” did? They added injury to insult.

If we get this wrong, we cause problems and miss opportunities. But if we get it right, a little spiritual discernment on our part can become a defining moment for someone else. Stop and think about it. Who has really impacted your life? Isn’t the people who comforted you when you needed it most. Isn’t it the people who had the courage to confront something in your life and tell you what you didn’t want to hear?

May God give us the spiritual discernment we need to know when you comfort and when to confront.