At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.” In all this, Job did not sin by charging God with wrongdoing.

This was Job’s response when most of his family and riches were taken from him. He refused to sin with his words and trusted God in spite of his calamity. The book of Job chronicles the quest for trying to understand why the good go through suffering. We learn that God is ultimately in control of this fallen world and that he alone fully understands why good people are allowed to suffer. Job learns that when nothing else was left, he still had a relationship with God, and that was enough.

There are times in my life when I go through times of adversity and suffering, and often in those times I wish God would come through for me with quicker solutions. There are a lot of prayers that I pray that I don’t see immediate answers to, but I must believe that God is working and that my prayers will make a difference.

Often, God is doing something much larger than meeting my immediate need. He’s shaping something in me of the likeness of Jesus Christ, something of His character that prepares me for the assignments ahead of me. That doesn’t sound very appealing to the American way of the pursuit of happiness and instant gratification. But God is more interested in making us look like Jesus Christ than he is about our momentary happiness. The deeper joy that comes from a relationship with God always lasts longer than the momentary satisfaction that this world offers.

Like Job, we must love God regardless of whether he allows blessing or suffering to come to us. Adversity and testing is really tough, but the result is often a deeper relationship with God.

Father God, I pray that I would be able to embrace the good and the bad in life, knowing that even though there are a lot of terrible things that happen in this fallen world, you know all things and you’re able to work everything out ultimately for my good. Lord Jesus, help me to say what Job said with great confidence: “He knows the way that I take, when he has tested me, I will come forth as gold.”