Good morning, Beloved. Continuing our daily thought for prayer over long night seasons, today we pray for the encouragers, and for hearts of understanding.

This focal verse pictured turns my thoughts back to Job. A night season can come upon us because of something we do to open a door for it, or, like Job who was righteous before God, it can come at no fault of our own, but at some eternal purpose of God’s. Those are the most difficult to go through, because we can’t understand why God is allowing it. There is always something to learn of God there, a deeper level to go to in our relationship with God, but remembering that can be the challenge in the night. Such a seemingly faultless season is also, I believe, the most difficult to encourage or help someone get through.

Like Job’s friends, an encourager comes with hope of lifting up and helping, but our human brains have difficulty fathoming such hardship being without a trigger from the sufferer. God is Love. He wouldn’t allow such without provocation, right? We begin trying to find the reason by citing legalese to spark a light that brings discernment or spur a confession of heart, trying to get the sufferer to see a sin that we believe would have to be in play for such a punishment of God to come upon us. We too readily forget that it is not our place to convict; that is the work of God’s Spirit.

There are two things to realize for prayer here:

1. The heart is deceptive. The sufferer needs discernment of hidden sin that may be the culprit, yes. And the encourager needs to discern the heart of the Spirit so their words of encouragement work the purpose of God in our efforts. So pray for that discernment.

2. Understanding the situation is vital for sufferer and encourager. Thus we pray for understanding so our encouragement is righteous and truly uplifting, bringing the sufferer and the encourager to greater faith and stronger relationship with Father.

Passage in context: 1 Timothy‬ ‭1:5-7‬ ‭NASB‬‬