Hey Vektek, glad to know you are still reading the forum and I hope God is blessing you and your family.
I just wanted to add something to your story of Job.
" Job's First Test
Job 1:6 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 through the earth and going back and forth in it."
8 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."
9 "Does Job fear God for nothing?" Satan replied. 10 "Have you not put a hedge around him and his household and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands, so that his flocks and herds are spread throughout the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face."
12 The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, then, everything he has is in your hands, but on the man himself do not lay a finger."
Then Satan went out from the presence of the LORD."
If you will notice that it was God who gave Satan permission to test Job....God had that much faith in him. So you see, we may at times have a hedge around us and at other times we may be tested. Satan is doing the testing....God is just giving him permission to do the test.
So if we believe this story to be true...a way we can tell if we have been tested, even though we feel we have been blameless and upright, a person who fears God and shuns evil....is to wait and see if you past the test and receive a more abundant blessing to come. For if you will notice...the blessings are in the now for Job and his family.
Lol I know you vektek, you will say that it may not come till our life here ends and we have our everlasting life. Which indeed is a wonderful and perfect reward but I think you can see with your own eyes the scripture (if you continue reading the rest of the story) will say that Job received great rewards during his lifetime on Earth to replace what he lost and then some.
We need to always be striving to be that blameless, upright, God-fearing, evil-shunner and when we fail, we ask for forgiveness and try to quickly learn what works to be successful in these things. Of course I think it is easier to just believe what God says in the bible we should do and bypass all that trial and error, but just like spoiled teenagers, we want to see for ourselves what works and what doesn't, instead of just listening to our parents.
How will we know that we are living that Job-like life and are being tested? When the outcome promotes the fruit of the Spirit of Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfullness, Gentleness and Self Control, even in the midst of the test.
We may not learn it the first time around and that is where forgiveness comes in. But if we truly seek to do what is right, we will constantly be trying to perfect what is found, "not perfect" in us.
The works of the flesh are what is not perfect. Which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatory, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, sedations, heresies, envyings, murderers, drunkenness, and revellings.
(WORKS OF THE FLESH WORD DEFINITIONS) can be found at http://www3.sympatico.ca/lords.word/flesh.html
Remember: It isn't God testing us.....it is God allowing Satan to test us. In time as we learn to pass all of these tests, blessings will come to our lives and the lives of our families.