Towards the end of his life, the apostle Paul had much to look back on regarding what the Lord had done through him. But he also had reason to look at all the hardship and suffering he had gone through and question himself whether he had made a mistake or whether he had been a fool to have spent his life like this. It was only natural that it would occur to him to wonder whether it was worth it all! Even as the one of the greatest apostles of all time he had reason to wonder. But he finally concluded that he didn't need to be ashamed at all (2Ti.1:7-12).
The one thing that kept him going forward without losing heart was that he knew whom he had believed (v.12). Paul had come to know God personally in such a deep and intimate way that he was able to put aside all doubts and questions and cling on to Him. He had learnt that in the midst of everything dark and painful, his Lord was always reliable and trustworthy. Even when he could not understand many things and could not figure out what to do based on all his theological knowledge and experience, he knew that he could leave everything in the hands of the unchangeable One. This God would carry him through, and in the end he would be able to see that God had accomplished what He had set out to do in Paul and through him.
We also face such tests at times, even though on a much smaller level. Our test is also to see if we would give up on God when we can't understand what is going on. The closer we know God, the more challenging is the trial that unanswered prayer brings, and the more we know the ways of God, the stronger is the test we face when things don't seem to fit in with them. God doesn't always answer our prayers and many times He doesn't even give an explanation. The only way we can overcome in such tests is to hold on to our trust in the One we know and believe in.
To survive in such tests is what we can do to overcome them because the test is about whether we would continue to trust in God when we can't see Him or experience His help. Wasn't this the essence of the test Satan put Job through? Satan was telling God that Job trusted Him only because he could always experience His protection and care. The test Satan proposed was to remove this protection and see how Job would react (Job.1:9-11).
We are not Job, and our tests are (thankfully) at a much lower level. But there is certainly a similarity in the essence of the test. We can apply the same approach in our life that Job used in his life to overcome. Just as Job survived his test by holding on to his faith in God, we too must continue to trust in God even when we can't know what is going on. Job had no idea what was going on behind the scene between God and Satan, and neither do we. We don't know what God has in mind when He allows us to go through such situations. But we can learn to overcome in the same way Job did, as also Paul. Our God won't fail us too. We will see it after God brings us through.