This is a quote from Tim Keller's book, Counterfeit Gods, that provides encouragement for those of us who are being so well loved by our Father that he is tearing our idols away from us (and usually without anesthetic).

Sometimes God seems to be killing us when he's actually saving us... The Bible is filled with stories of figures such as [Abraham and] Joseph, Moses and David in which God seemed to have abandoned them, but later it is revealed he was dealing with the destructive idols in their lives and that could only come to pass through their experience of difficulty... We can't know all the reasons that our Father is allowing bad things to happen to us, but like Jesus did, we can trust him in those difficult times. As we look at him and rejoice in what he did for us, we will have the joy and hope necessary—and the freedom from counterfeit gods—to follow the call of God when times seem at their darkest and most difficult.