I love this question because it causes me to look deep into myself and ask questions. Would I hold up to scrutiny if my character was gone over carefully, and do I even have the confidence to say yes to such a request? I want my answer to be yes, without hesitation, but maybe it really depends on who is asking the questions.
One of my favorite Scriptures in the bible is Job. We all know the term character assignation and its devastating ability to damage an individual. Job came to understand that he had friends of this sort. Who felt that they had the answers to the troubles in Job's life. The following were their accusations.
It was God who was allowing loss to overtake Job. God had looked at his life carefully, and found that it was lacking honesty. These calamities could only be because Job was at fault. He was not who he professed to be, God knew it, and now His punishment had been unleashed.
Even in the light of that kind of verbal attack, where another is using circumstances in your life to validate and justify the why, you need to draw upon a deeper resolve and stand!
Could it be that it is not really your character that is in question? If you and I do not flinch at proclaiming the goodness of God, His many attributes, His overriding love and grace that abounds in our lives, could it be that this frontal attack is not really about us at all? Might it be God's character that has been in question all along, and we just happen to be within reach?
God asks Job questions. Were these questions meant to knock Job back into the reality of who he always believed God to be? To bring Job back from the brink of believing he was deserving of such troubles, as his friends pointed out? God begins, "Where were you?" I must say that this snaps me out of myself quickly. As I read the verses that follow I begin to understand, not so much my character, but the character of the Almighty.
When the devil appeared before God and was given permission to sift Job, we need to remember who he really was trying to show up that day. Clearly it was not Job!
Job 1:1 NLT There once was a man named Job who lived in the land of Uz. He was blameless-a man of complete integrity. He feared God and stayed away from evil.
Job 42:1-2 NIV Then Job replied to the Lord: I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted.