Willing to Suffer?

Yesterday I spent time with a fervent, godly brother named John who is experiencing a lot of major adversity in his life in many areas. These don't appear to result from sin or bad choices. As I reflected on his situation and asked God for wisdom, the following came to me. Why does Job experience suffering? "Then 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, one who fears God and shuns evil?" ( Job 1:8 NKJV) God trusts Job to trust Him no matter how much he suffers. Job proves faithful to the trust reposed in him. ""Though he slay me, yet will I trust Him." ( Job 13:15a)
Now many will object at this point. Is God some kind of celestial puppet master capriciously playing with the lives of men? Not when seen with the eyes of faith. In fact, He is giving us the tremendous privilege of working with Him to fulfill his purposes. "To the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Ephesians 3:10-11)
If we regard God, rather than ourselves, as the center of the universe, and are willing to depend on Him even if we suffer, then He can use us, like Job, to manifest His wisdom and glory to angels, demons, and any other created beings in the heavenly realms- the audience of our efforts on the stage of God.
* In this post i am starting a new, periodic feature called "Fun with Words", based on my attempts to learn Portuguese, and of those who first language is not English to learn that tongue. Today's phonetic attempt is "peapoles", as in "We the peapoles." Couldn't resist.