Don't Blow Your Top

Today we read Job 31-32 and Galatians 5-6.

Job is going through a catastrophic hard time of which there is little that he understands.  He sits in the rubble and the ashes of the life he once knew and has 'friends' that come to guide him through.  I say 'friends' because of everyone that comes running to your side in your crisis is not your friend.  Some of them are just nosey.  Others that come are experts...or, at least, they think so....just ask them.
Elihu is late on the scene in Job's crisis and he has sat back and listened.  However, in Job 32.19, he apparently has had enough:
Behold, my belly is like wine that has no vent;
    like new wineskins ready to burst.
20 I must speak, that I may find relief;
    I must open my lips and answer.

He is so full of something to say...as well as being full of himself...that he is about the blow his top if he doesn't say it.  Too many of us get like that too much of the time. 

It is wonderful to be a friend to someone in crisis, but check your motive at the door.  You are not there to find out the latest information to share nor simply for your own nosiness.  You are also not there to give your expert advice to someone who is going through something that you have never been through.  Even if you have been through it, you are not an expert on how other people will cope.  We all cope differently.  You are there to be a friend, to lend a helping hand, and to be used by God.  

Go, when one is in need, but don't blow your top. You may not even need to open your mouth.  Be sensitive today to those in need as God gives you opportunity.