Job 1:  (MSG)
1  Job was a man who lived in Uz. He was honest inside and out, a man of his word, who was totally devoted to God and hated evil with a passion.
2  He had seven sons and three daughters.
3  He was also very wealthy—seven thousand head of sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred teams of oxen, five hundred donkeys, and a huge staff of servants—the most influential man in all the East!
4  His sons used to take turns hosting parties in their homes, always inviting their three sisters to join them in their merrymaking.
5  When the parties were over, Job would get up early in the morning and sacrifice a burnt offering for each of his children, thinking, “Maybe one of them sinned by defying God inwardly.” Job made a habit of this sacrificial atonement, just in case they’d sinned.
6  One day when the angels came to report to GOD, Satan, who was the Designated Accuser, came along with them.
7  GOD singled out Satan and said, “What have you been up to?” Satan answered GOD, “Going here and there, checking things out on earth.”
8  GOD said to Satan, “Have you noticed my friend Job? There’s no one quite like him—honest and true to his word, totally devoted to God and hating evil.”
9  Satan retorted, “So do you think Job does all that out of the sheer goodness of his heart?
10  Why, no one ever had it so good! You pamper him like a pet, make sure nothing bad ever happens to him or his family or his possessions, bless everything he does—he can’t lose!
11  “But what do you think would happen if you reached down and took away everything that is his? He’d curse you right to your face, that’s what.”
12  GOD replied, “We’ll see. Go ahead—do what you want with all that is his. Just don’t hurt him.” Then Satan left the presence of GOD.

How a person handles adversity says a lot about their character to those who are watching.  It also tells God how strong your faith in Him is.

Let me first debunk a false doctrine that many believe, that if you are suffering you must have committed a sin.  If you are sick then you must not have enough faith or you would be healed.  The exact opposite is true.  No where in scripture does it teach the erroneous doctrine that I have just mentioned.

I am using the man called Job as one example, but there are numerous more throughout God’s word.

A elder of mine use to say, that what doesn’t kill you, will make you better.  Someone else once stated, if the enemy isn’t bothering you, he has you.  Both statements are quite true as we walk this human life on earth.

Job lived a Godly life and God protected him.  Satan knew it, so he walks into the throne of God and asks that God take down the protection that is around him.  Satan, the accuser of the brother, told God that if He would do this, Job would curse God.  How wrong the enemy was about Job!

Well, the conversation went back and forth between God and Satan.  Finally God relented and took down the hedge from around Job, but with one condition.  Satan could do anything to Job except take his life.

Things started to go bad for Job.  He began to lose his wealth, his properties, then his sons and his daughters.  Yet through all this Job did not curse God.  Even when his own wife told him to curse God and die Job replied to her that she talked like a foolish woman.  Job told her, ‘though God slay me yet I will trust him’.  Not one time did Job lose faith in the God of Israel.

I have been through many trials, sickness, even almost death but never once have I lost total faith in God.  Somehow I knew deep within me that God would see me through.

Just in the last few years I have experienced my share of sickness and stays in the hospital.  During one stay they tell me I went septic.  I found it that is when poison in your body enters your blood stream.  I was told that I was like that for four days.  I have no memories at all from the days.  The doctor walked in after I came through it and asked if I remembered him.  I did not.

Back in the late 1980’s I was thrown from the back of a motorcycle landing on my seat.  The impact ripped away everything from spine.  The following morning the morning nurse came into my room with a tray of things.  I moved to look towards her.  The tray she was carrying landed with a crash on the floor.  I asked her what was wrong.  She related to me that she had just come from reports and the doctors had stated that I would be at least a paraplegic.  I can say today that I am still walking, but if I would be in a wheel chair I know I would still trust God.

I am not immune from having my trust in God challenged.  It has even been challenged with the sudden death of friends and family.

Yes, we may not like going through hard times.  Even times where it seems like death would be the best option instead of facing major illness.  Through all these things we must not lose faith in God, knowing that He will bring us through.  That we have not sinned because of the trials and tribulations we face in our life.

Yes, it matters who we are when going through trials.

Never give up, but look up.  Like Job, God saw him through.  The Scripture tells us that everything that Satan stole from him was restored with a double portion in his latter life.