No matter what you do in life—whether you go to college or fine tune your craft; build a business or climb the corporate ladder; get married or sail through the world solo—some people will support you, while others will criticize your choices and doubt your motives. These people often mean well, but their negative comments can be a devastating blow to your self-esteem. Such is the case, spiritually, when times are hard. When we are passed over for promotion or lose a job, when we become chronically ill, when we lose people we love, what then? The accuser –Satan—hopes to set just such a trap for the Christian who is going through pain. Many times the “well-meaning” friends may threaten our faith and cause us to lose hope and abandon our faith altogether. This week we’ll learn how to “PRESS ON” by looking at the life of Job. He is introduced as a man of great learning and influence; as a man of great piety who knew and reverenced God and appreciated justice; as man of great generosity and wealth. Suddenly, disaster came upon Job and he was bereft of his children, and his wealth, his influence, and his health. He sought in vain for an explanation as to why God should permit such evils to befall him, yet still trusted in God, saying “Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him.” His four friends came to visit him and told him in lengthy argument that that he must have been a great sinner and a hypocrite. True friends, right? Many lessons are to be learned here from this scripture.