Lessons about Trials from Job

Job teaches us how to help a friend going through trials:

Job’s wife and friends did a lot of things wrong during Job’s trials, but here they did something very right:

Job 2:11-13 ¹¹ When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him. ¹² When they saw him from a distance, they could hardly recognize him; they began to weep aloud, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads. ¹³ Then they sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him, because they saw how great his suffering was.

We don’t always have to say anything. Just be there with them!

Job teaches us how to get through a trial ourselves;

Job 1:22 In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

Job did not blame God, he did not sin and he did not lose his faith!

Satan is alive and well on the planet Earth:

Job 1:6-7 ⁶ One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. ⁷ The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”

God knew where Satan was. He said this so WE would know that Satan roams the earth! To keep us on our guard!

Trials set us free from pride and cause us to turn to and depend on God.

Here are 3 helps for handling trials:

1. Prayer brings peace: Philippians 4:6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

2. The Word brings wisdom; Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp for my feet,
a light on my path.

3. When enduring a trial truth must govern your life – not your feelings.

4. Trials train us. Job learned about God’s sovereignty through His.