A student told me one time, “I quit being a Christian two weeks ago, and I haven’t even sinned since!”

On the other hand, many who determine to begin seeking a personal relationship with God discover that everything goes wrong.

“Many who sincerely consecrate their lives to God’s service are surprised and disappointed to find themselves, as never before, confronted by obstacles and beset by trials and perplexities. They pray for Christlikeness of character, for a fitness for the Lord’s work, and they are placed in circumstances that seem to call forth all the evil of their nature. Faults are revealed of which they did not even suspect the existence. Like Israel of old they question, ‘If God is leading us, why do all these things come upon us?’ ” – The Ministry of Healing p. 470.

Sometimes it is hard to accept the inspired answer given in the same context, that

“it is because God is leading them that these things come upon them. Trials and obstacles are the Lord’s chosen methods of discipline and His appointed conditions of success.” – Ibid,., p. 471. (Emphasis supplied.)

The story of Job is a strange story. Here was a man who was perfect. God said he was perfect.

He said to Satan,

“Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?” Job 1:8.

Yet God gave the devil permission to attack Job, even though Job was perfect. And overnight poor Job was faced with more problems than most people face in a lifetime. His wealth disappeared, his health disappeared, his children disappeared. More than that, he lost the respect of his wife, his reputation in the community, and the trust of his friends.

What was the devil’s charge against God in this setting? He accused God of unfairly protecting Job. He accused God of being the sort of Being that had to bribe His creatures to love. He said in essense, “Job serves You only for what he can get out of You.”

But God knew better! He knew what made Job tick. And so He placed His reputation on the line, before the universe, in the person of His servant Job. He said to the devil, “Go ahead and try to prove your point.”

Sometimes people have objected to the story of Job, feeling that God was using Job as a pawn in His game with the devil. But it wasn’t Job who was on trial–it was God who was on trial. And Job, who not only at the beginning didn’t understand what was going on, but who was never given an explanation so far as the Bible records, vindicated God before the watching worlds!

Nobody admires a mercenary. We can understand the problems that the wealthy or public figures have in forming true friendships. It’s not always easy to tell who wants to be friends with you as a person, or who is only trying to get something out of you.

With every person who leaves his ranks to join God’s side, the devil accuses God all over again.

He says, “This one is not coming to You because he loves You. He is not accepting Your service out of gratitude for what Your Son did for him. He wants his problems solved. He wants his ulcers healed. He wants peace of mind. He wants to escape the fires of judgment.”

In a sense, every soul who makes a decision to accept Christ renews the great controversy. And the only way God can be vindicated, the only way He can accept our choice for Him, is if He gives the devil an opportunity to talk us out of that choice!

One student told me, “If I could know that I was saved, that my sins were forgiven, and that I was accepted by God right now, then I would want someone to kill me quick!”

“Why?”

“Because I would be afraid I would blow it!”

But God doesn’t want people who come to Him only in a moment of extreme pressure and who would change their minds about wanting to belong to Him if they had half a chance. He wants our free choice. And in order to give us complete freedom of choice, He has to allow the enemy to do his best to get us to change our minds.

Not too many years ago, the United States legislated a “cooling off ” period after the signing of any major contract. Even the government makes allowance for second thoughts and guarantees the right to change our minds. The choice that can outlast the bad times, as well as the good times, is the only free choice that God and the devil can both accept.