One day a student told me, “I quit being a Christian two weeks ago, and I haven’t sinned since!”

On the other hand, many new Christians have discovered that when they first surrender themselves to God and begin to set aside time to seek Christ day by day, suddenly everything goes wrong. They are faced with worse temptations and trials than ever before, and the first thought that presents itself is that the plan of setting aside time with God is “not working.”

It can be hard to understand why this happens. It’s easy to see why the devil would want to discourage someone who is trying to seek a relationship with Christ. But why does God permit it? That’s the question! And the best answer that some of us have found is in the story of Job.

The story begins on a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord (see Job 1 and 2). Satan came also among them. Why? Because Adam had sold out to Satan, and Satan now claimed to be the representative of this world.

God asked Satan, “What is your business here?”

And Satan replied, “I come from the earth. I’m in charge down there.”

God said, “Have you seen My servant Job? You’re not in charge of him. He serves Me.”

But Satan shook his fist at God and said, “Sure, Job serves You. Haven’t You put a hedge around him on all sides? Haven’t You blessed him in every way? But if You’ll just take away Your protection, You’ll see how fast he will change his mind.”

So God, who has always been fair in the way He has conducted this great controversy, gave the devil permission to try and prove his point.

Job found that overnight, everything he had was taken from him, except his wife. And perhaps she should have been the first to go! But Job maintained his integrity, even in the face of disaster.

The devil obtained permission to try again. This time he gave Job boils from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. God’s reputation was again at stake in this drama being played out before the universe. But once again, Job remained faithful to Him, and God was proved right.

Now, the book of Job is not placed in the Bible to be simply a history lesson. It has a real, practical message for each of us today.

You go to your knees, and you say, I’m determined to know what it means to have a meaningful relationship with God. I realize my need of Him, and I am going to seek to know Him day by day.

At that point, the story of Job is repeated. Satan shakes his fist at God and says, “These people don’t really love You. They are seeking You for selfish reasons. They want their prayers answered. They want their problems solved. They aren’t seeking You because they love You, but because of what they hope to get out of You.”

So God gives Satan permission to prove his point.

The devil comes at you with all his guns blazing. He knows where the secret for power in the Christian life is. So he comes in with trouble and affliction—all for the purpose of diverting your attention from Christ and causing you to give up your search for Him.

What do you do at that point? If you are a legalist, you scrap your relationship because of your behavior. And the devil sits back and laughs.

But the devil never knows when to quit. If he had been smart, he would have had some of us a long time ago. All he would have needed to do would be to leave us alone. But he is not happy just seeing us lost eternally—he’d like to have us in the gutter in the meantime as well. So before long he will come at us once again—just for fun this time! And he meets himself coming back—because there are times when trouble can drive us to our knees.

When you study the book of Job you begin to understand the issues in the great controversy between Christ and Satan. You choose to seek fellowship and a relationship with God for His sake, because of Jesus and what He did for you at the cross. It makes no difference how well you think you are doing in terms of behavior. You determine to continue to seek Jesus regardless of what happens in your life.

If things seem to go worse when you seek God more, welcome to the club. But I also welcome you to the decision to continue seeking God, regardless of what happens, because of what Jesus has already done.