“After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord made him prosper again and gave him twice as much as he had before” Job 42:10

God was angry with Job’s friends because they gave Job counsel that misrepresented God and advice that was not right. There were many errors in their theology and in how they viewed prosperity and suffering. Knowing that God was displeased with his friends Job prayed for them. Because Job prayed, God dealt graciously with Job’s friends. His intercession opened the door to his blessing, restoration… twice as much as before.

Sometimes God allows us to see the flaws and shortcomings in other people. Sometimes we wish things were different in people or we would like the things people do to be more like what we would do, or to meet our standards that would be pleasing to us. And in the face of that, we can so easily fall into a critical spirit! Remember that constructive criticism with a pure heart is good… but criticism that tears down and is meant to hurt is never good. We can criticize what we don’t like or if something is different from what we would prefer. We criticize others and then we find others who are also critical and then we feed each other’s critical spirits. Rather than becoming part of the solution and seeking to help, you become part of the problem. God hates a critical spirit and it is a cancer in any church.

Like Job, we must choose to pray (which is a lot harder than criticizing) forbear, forgive, stay unified, don’t gossip and complain, seek to be of help where you can, and trust God to make the changes in anyone’s life… as you pray! Read Romans 12:9-21. Resist a critical spirit and handle things the right way according to God’s Word. Criticism moves the Devil’s hand… Prayer moves God’s! And you will be blessed as well!