Character: December 8, 2011

CHARACTER

DEFINITION:

The qualities that distinguishes one person or thing from another; a trait; good qualities such as honesty, integrity and fortitude; moral or ethical quality.

SCRIPTURE:

There was a man whose name was Job; and that man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God and shunned evil. Job 1:1.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

Many people today appear to have character problems. When faced with a dilemma, they seem to forget the right thing to do and instead choose the easy way out of that dilemma. When this happens it becomes a character issue.

God called Job, in the verse we have written above, a blameless and upright man who feared God and shunned evil. Job was a man of character. He had strong principles and lived his life daily honoring those God given principles.

When you read the book of Job you will see how Satan took everything away that Job had --- his children, his wealth and his health. Despite all of these heart wrenching circumstances, Job refused to deny God. In Job 1:22 we read that “In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.” You see Satan had challenged God’s assertion of Job’s blameless character because Satan mistakenly thought Job's blameless character was only because of his prosperous circumstances.

Satan was certain that if hardship and suffering were inflicted on Job, then Job would turn against God. Satan was proven wrong because Job stood firm in his belief in God. Terrible circumstances did not change the person that Job was. Through all his pain and suffering he maintained his righteous character.

The writer of Romans tells us, in Romans 5, that faith always triumphs over trouble. Job proved this and the first five verses of Romans 5 tells us to glory in our times of trouble knowing that trouble or tribulations produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character produces our hope. This is the exciting hope that believers have of spending eternity with our Lord.

Character is who we are. It is not something that we forget. When one has a loss of character one has made a choice. Let us remind you that when wealth is gone, little is lost; when health is gone, something is lost; but when character is gone, all is lost.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Proverbs 19:17.

He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and He will pay back what he has given.

PRAYER:

Lord, give me strength to maintain strong faith in You and be of blameless character no matter what my circumstances may be. Help me to be faithful in teaching my children Your principles to enable them to develop a Christ-honoring character.