THE QUESTION HAS OFTEN BEEN ASKED, "WHY DID GOD CAUSE JOB TO SUFFER SO SEVERELY?"

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We must first understand that Job’s suffering was not “caused” by God but rather it was “allowed” by Him. God was not punishing Job for anything. In fact, God even said to satan of Job that he was “blameless and upright.” satan's reply to God (in layman's terms) was, “Job doesn’t love you, he is only a fair-weather friend to you.” And so God permitted satan to take everything away from Job to prove that he would continue to love God in spite of everything. For you and me, God may sometimes allow trials because He can use those trials to show us our weaknesses, and when we see our weaknesses we need to ask God to help our faith grow because like it or not, for the most part, our faith is weak. A fact that is not always so obvious to us when everything in life is going great and we aren’t challenged in any way. It's when the hard times do come along that the true nature of our faith is then revealed. God does not test us because He doesn’t know how strong we are. He tests us because WE don’t know how strong we are — and we can only discover how strong we are when times of testing come. The psalmist prayed, “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts” (Psalm 139:23). The important thing to remember is that Job suffered not because he was the worst, but because he was among the best. Testing should always make us spiritually stronger — and it will, if we turn it over to God.

-Mark Shutts