I cry to you for help and you do not answer me; I stand, and you only look at me. You have turned cruel to me (Job 30:20-21).
These words came out of the mouth of the man God considered the most blameless and upright on earth at the time (Job 1:8).
Most of the Bible heroes are unvarnished and clay-footed. Sometimes they wonder if God is cruel. There’s hope for us.
Can you identify with Job? You cry out to God in your affliction and you see nothing change. It seems like he’s just standing there watching you writhe. It feels cruel.
But this is not, in fact, true. What is true is that God is doing far more in our affliction than we know.
For Job, he did not know that he was putting Satan to shame by trusting in God despite his desolate confusion. He did not know that his experience would encourage millions for millennia.
And like Job, we do not know what mind-blowing designs God has in store for what may feel unbearable and appear cruel today.
Your suffering may be inscrutable today. But in reality it is preparing for you “an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison” (2 Corinthians 4:17).
Take heart and hold on.
Will you consciously say "God has meant it for good" – even if does not make sense to you today?
Jon Bloom
Desiring God Ministries.
Changi Chapel 
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