“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 NIV
As Job was in the midst of his suffering, Job’s friends attempted to give him words of comfort, but what they spoke about God was not accurate (Job 42:7). God was not pleased with Job’s three friends though they claimed to know the ways of God. They in turn were directed by God to ask Job to pray on their behalf because their prayers would not have been accepted (Job 42:8-9). Job’s hardship became an insinuation from his friend that he was guilty of wrongdoing (Job 4), yet as Job was going through hard times, he did not sin (Job 1:22).
“Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”
John 14:10-14 NIV
Has God given you a prayer request from someone? The person who asked may truly be in a worse situation than you even when you happen to also be in a trial. Whenever someone asks you to pray for them for a specific situation, that person is invoking the Holy Spirit in you and it can be likened as yielding your car’s driver seat to the Holy Spirit. Our flesh may be going through the agony of a trial, but the help and comfort you provide to another believer is evidence of God’s continued work through you as stated in v.12, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing…”
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
John 15:5 NIV