To trust God in our suffering, even while we ache, is to have an inward attitude of yielding contentment in God’s sovereign plan for our lives, which brings us hope and peace amid tumultuous difficulty. The prophet Isaiah has proclaimed for us to repeat: You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you (Isaiah 26:3).

Christians, rightly so, are often mindful to give thanks for the blessings we receive from God. But do we readily praise God distinctly for what He takes from us? After all, this, too, is a providence from His hand.

Whenever and whatever God takes from His children, they are never truly left deficient or wanting. Rather, when God takes from us, what He is actually giving to us is of greater worth than any material blessing. In all His taking, God is giving us opportunity—spiritual opportunity to grow in our faith. Ultimately, when God takes from us, He is replacing it with an opportunity to love Him better as we are painstakingly molded into greater Christlikeness through the pain.

The Bible vividly describes blameless Job’s circumstance of having earthly things and beings taken from him. In this true story, recorded in Job 1 and 2, Job’s abundance is razed when his livestock, children, wealth, and health are removed from his life by death and destruction. Additionally, His loss was compounded by loneliness as his well-intended friends imparted their hollow counsel into his desolation throughout this biblical account. Yet, in response to the devastation of his life and livelihood, Scripture records Job’s righteous response in this way:

Then Job arose and tore his robe and shaved his head and fell on the ground and worshiped. And he said, “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD.” In all this Job did not sin or charge God with wrong. (Job 1:20–22)

The word charge here was translated from the Hebrew word “nā·ṯan” (transliterated by Strong’s as “Nathan”). This term carries with it the notion of ascribing to or giving. In other words, Job did not give to God suspicious blame for wrongdoing, because he had resolute faith in the Giver of all he had (Jas 1:17). Even amidst anguishing loss, Job ascribed to God the glory due His name and worshiped Him with praise (Ps 29:2).

At the time of Job, Satan had certainly observed human nature long enough to hypothesize that Job’s response to his suffering would be a brazen affront to God’s sovereignty. After all, Scripture reveals to us that Satan presumed Job’s pursuit of holy living was fortified by the lavish life he experienced:

Then Satan answered the LORD and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and his and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” (Job 1:9–11, emphasis added)

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