Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil. and he still maintains his integrity, though you incited me against him to ruin him without any reason.”
“Skin for skin!” Satan replied. “A man will give all he has for his own life. But now stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face.”
The Lord said to Satan, “Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life.” Job 2:3-6 (New International Version)
I don’t know about you, but this story about God and Satan arguing over who owns Job’s soul sends shivers down my spine. Job represents all godly people who desire to live upright lives. The fact that who owns us, God or Satan, is even up for question is concerning enough. But more sobering still is God’s willingness to allow Satan to test us.
It’s a common experience all believers must go through, this testing. Jesus himself went through it. It’s interesting that, just as Job’s testing came after God pronounced him to be his “servant,” so Jesus’ testing happened immediately following God pronouncing him to be his “beloved son.”
“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the Devil.”1
Similarly, Jesus warned Simon Peter that he would also be tested by Satan:
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift all of you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.”2
Notice that Jesus references a previous conversation God had with Satan about Peter that sounds eerily similar to the one God and Satan had about Job: “God, give Peter over to me and I will sift him like wheat.” Satan had argued.
In this warning that he gives to Peter, Jesus makes it clear that faith is the key issue when we are being tested: “I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail.”
I love this picture of Jesus praying for us during our testing. He doesn’t pray that we will be spared testing, he prays that our faith will endure it. And because he prays for us, we can endure it if we so choose, as the following scriptural promise encapsulates:
“No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.”3
So, men, like it or not, God and Satan are talking about us because God has seen our faith in Christ and declared us to be his beloved children. And because of this reality, the proving of our faith is inevitable.
“In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed”4
This post first appeared in NewCommandment.org.
For the past sixteen years New Commandment Men’s Ministries has helped hundreds of churches throughout North American and around the world recruit teams of men who permanently adopt their widowed and single parents in their congregations for the purpose of donating two hours of service to them one Saturday morning each month. We accomplish this with a free training site called New Commandment Men’s Ministry
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