He is all Love

An elder said:

We should not put God in difficult position. He is all Love. God does not like to see us unhappy. What should God do then? Any time we are given grace abundantly, we boast; if we are not given this grace, we are unhappy, even despairing.

Soon after we begin to try[to live the spiritual life] we get tired. Even if we go astray, this can be a helpful experience for us, because it is not only in order to humble us that God sometimes withdraws His grace from us. This in fact is exactly how a man is humbled. Then when God's grace is given back to him again, he sees that he has grown in self-knowledge, and realizes that he cannot rely on himself, but he needs God's help.

It is like a baby: as soon as he is able to hold his mother's hand, he tries to walk. He takes big steps and thinks that he is doing just fine, imagining that he is walking on his o[w]n. If this continues, the child becomes dependant, because if we hold his hand all the time, he gets a false sense of security and then tumbles when he actually does attempt to walk by himself.

Sometimes the Devil manages to use us to tempt our brother. When we pray for God to give us love, God then might allow a brother to become ill so that we may be granted an opportunity to show our love when the sick brother asks for help. The sick one might ask you, 'Bring me some tea, bring me this, bring me that...' In this way God will test both your love and your patience.

Sometimes God withdraws the grace from our superiors, and they speak to us abruptly. This tests us, to see if we will judge or not, we who have previously asked Him to give us the virtue of restraint from criticism.

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(Quoted from: An Athonite Gerontikon, Chapter XIII: On Discernment of Thought and Spirituality, p. 136)