{"id":3922,"date":"2015-03-03T12:00:23","date_gmt":"2015-03-03T17:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/?p=3922"},"modified":"2015-03-01T23:02:30","modified_gmt":"2015-03-02T04:02:30","slug":"when-god-gives-the-tough-tests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/03\/when-god-gives-the-tough-tests.html","title":{"rendered":"When God Gives the Tough Tests"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Question:<\/strong> I have been a Christian almost all my life. A few years ago I had to have open-heart surgery, which caused a stroke, messing up my ability to do my job. I ended up losing a job that I was good at and enjoyed thoroughly. I feel like Job in the Bible in that I have lost everything because the thing I did best was taken away from me. I have always heard that when God closes one door He opens another. I find myself getting down and not knowing which way to turn. I try to keep my faith, but I feel I am losing. I try to live in the present moment, but find that it is getting harder to do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Answer:<\/strong> God never forsakes the soul that loves Him\u2026 never. The problem is, our souls (as they presently are) lack spiritual understanding. We think we are who we think we are, and these thought-constructed natures &#8212; these images we hold of ourselves &#8212; are in a form of enmity with God. For these reasons, when God gives Himself to us, we often don&#8217;t understand the gift. Take Job, for instance. His trials and willingness to endure them, in spite of everything, did not confuse his love for the Almighty. Why? Because he knew in his heart that God is good. Sure, His tests may be tough, but for whatever reasons, God only gives tough tests to those whom He needs to be tougher.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: I have been a Christian almost all my life. A few years ago I had to have open-heart surgery, which caused a stroke, messing up my ability to do my job. I ended up losing a job that I was good at and enjoyed thoroughly. I feel like Job in the Bible in that&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[517,80],"tags":[2196,49,1233,2195,608,2023,1624,1405],"class_list":["post-3922","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anger-frustration","category-bible-scripture","tag-being-tested","tag-faith","tag-god-is-good","tag-healing-hope","tag-hopelessness","tag-job","tag-real-love","tag-trials-and-tribulations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>When God Gives the Tough Tests - Letting Go with Guy Finley<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/lettinggo\/2015\/03\/when-god-gives-the-tough-tests.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"When God Gives the Tough Tests - Letting Go with Guy Finley\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Question: I have been a Christian almost all my life. 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His ideas cut straight to the heart of our most important personal and social issues - relationships, success, addiction, stress, peace, happiness, freedom - and lead the way to a higher life. Finley is the Founder and Director of Life of Learning Foundation, a nonprofit Center for Spiritual Discovery. He is the acclaimed author of \"The Secret of Letting Go\" and more than 45 other books and audio programs that have sold over two million copies in 26 languages worldwide. His work is widely endorsed by doctors, business professionals, celebrities, and religious leaders of all denominations. Through Life of Learning Foundation, Guy has presented over 5,000 unique self-realization seminars to thousands of grateful students throughout North America and Europe over the past 20 years and has been a guest on over 700 television and radio shows, including national appearances on ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and NPR. The Foundation's popular Key Lesson e-mails featuring inspirational quotes by Guy are read each week by a hundred thousand subscribers in 142 countries. Guy speaks four times each week on inner-life principles at Life of Learning Foundation's home in Merlin, Oregon. These meetings are ongoing and open to the public. 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