Grief, Friends and the Holy Spirit

So recently, I have encountered various friends who were hurting, grieving. And so... being one who likes to inquire, I was able to ask a pastor in which I was blessed to serve with over the past summer on missions.

Here's the following Q&A:

I had a question about grieving friends, and hurting friends. How do you biblically comfort and counsel them? And are you ever overwhelmed as a pastor with all the problems that you listen to... how do you deal with it?


3. A great question in which I can see your compassionate loving
heart in which our sweet Holy Spirit dwells:
a. I listen prayerfully and try to understand him/her/them, their
real root problem(s). If a non-believer? I ask for permission to
share Christ with h/h.
b. I try not to judge the person but the problem.
c. I pray with him/her/them on the spot, if a Christian. I ask h/h/t
to pray first. Then I shall pray for h/h/t. If h/s/t will not pray
verbally, after a while, I shall pray openly, verbally, and
biblically, using God's Word that I know/recall to talk with God.
d. At times I merely sit patiently with him/her/them and sob/cry with
them, if the situation justiies it. I am not shy to express my
"controled" sentiments under the Spirit's guidance. Sometime silence
and sobbing with the suffering saint, seem to be our better tools for
the Holy Spirit. But I don't cry merely for crying's sake. I ask the
indwelling Spirit to guide my sentiment. A word of caution: Satan,
the deceiver, can use emotions to trick us Christians into "loving"
people at any cost, especially those of the opposite gender. We've
got to let the indwelling Holy Spirit guide us and we listen to Him
all the time, silently, inwardly. Remember: we are not God and so do
not act as God.
4. Being a pastor, I am also a person, a person saved by God's grace
and serving Him by His grace for His glory. I can sympathize, rather
than empathize, with the needy person. I need to counsel with the
Word, having tried to apply it to my life first and foremost. That's
why I need my dear brothers'/sisters' intercession, exhortation, and
encouragement that I may serve as a more useful vessel in my majestic
Master's hand.