Do you know anyone who is broken? Hurting? Crying out for help? Living in pain? Suffering? Bet you do. It may be your spouse, your child, your neighbor, or a  friend. Everyone we meet—at work, in church, at the grocery store—suffers from brokenness.

Here are three actions every broken person needs.

1. Be a friend.

When faltering saints need love, acceptance, encouragement, and help the most, all too often, they are shunned. This should not be. During these times, broken people truly need the support and affirmation of a friend.

A friend refreshes. The word refreshed means to give intermission from labor or to give rest. It most commonly denotes the refreshment of the inner person.

A friend comes alongside the hurting individual to offer support and encouragement. They help the struggler by assisting with the burden and comforting the pain. They bring refreshment to the broken person like an ice-cold glass of water on a scorching hot day. They remind the wounded of hope in God.

2. Be a forgiver.

A forgiver releases the sin of the offender. In other words, they let it go; they don’t keep a record of wrong; they don’t harbor grudges; they forget the mistake; and they allow the other person to get on with life. Forgiveness means to cancel a debt in order to provide an opportunity for repentance and reconciliation of a broken relationship.

Being a friend sustains the hurting one in the present, being a forgiver wipes the slate clean of the past.

3. Be a brother.

A brother restores the future of the fallen. In the New Testament the word restore was used to describe the mending of fisherman’s nets in order to be used the next day. It is the idea of putting people back into workable and useful shape. It reminds people how valuable they are to God and to society.

Broken people are all around us. Look for them Then, be a friend, a forgiver, and a brother or sister to them.