Do you ever feel like you have done something wrong to make God mad at you? Or when you go through trials in life, do you wonder if God is punishing you for something? If so, you are not alone. It can be hard sometimes to remember that God does not get mad in the same ways and for the same reasons that we do as humans.

Think about the story of Job in the Bible. Job 1:1-3 says this about him: “There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. He possessed 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen, and 500 female donkeys, and very many servants, so that this man was the greatest of all the people of the east.” 

Does this sound like a man who should be punished for something that he has done? Or someone that God should be mad at? Yet Job faced many trials in a short time. He lost his family, his possessions, his home, and even his physical health. His friends came to visit him and after sitting in silence with him for a time, they started telling Job that he had done something to deserve all of what had been done to him.

Do you know what was going on behind the scenes, though? God was not punishing Job for anything that he had done. On the contrary, God allowed Job to be tested by Satan with strict guidelines. Job 1:8-11 says, “And the Lord said to Satan, ‘Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?’ 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 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’s faith was tested, not because he had done something wrong to deserve God’s anger to be directed at him, but because of his strong faith in God. His friends were not helpful in telling him that he deserved it, and his wife even told him to curse God and die. But Job kept his faith in God, despite the outward circumstances of his life. And because of his continued faith, God blessed Job with abundantly more than he had started with. 

In our lives today, we may think that God is mad or punishing us for something that we have done, but that is not always the case. In fact, I would argue that most of the time that is not the case. When you are tempted to feel this way, remember that Job was tried because of how dedicated he was to God, not because of something that he shouldn’t have done.
Abbi