Working in Certain Ways

If you are anything like me, you are probably accustomed to God working in your life in certain ways, and as long as he continues to work in those ways you  find it relatively easy to trust him. But the moment the normal operating procedures change (maybe answering your prayers differently; maybe allowing you to go through a surprising set of circumstances), you find yourself getting a little nervous or even upset. Maybe you start complaining. Yet you and I must learn from Habakkuk's experience, from Job's trials, from Paul's thorn in the flesh, that God often uses various means to accomplish his purposes so that you and I do not mistake the means  for God himself. He does not want us to ever mistake the good that we know for the one who gives the good.

- Mark Dever, The Message of the Old Testament