"Return, Israel, to the LORD your God, Your sins have been your downfall! ... 'I will heal their waywardness [backsliding] and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them" (Hosea 14:1,4, NIV).
"Backsliders get what they deserve..." (Prov. 14:14, NLT).
"Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself..." (Isa. 45:15, NIV).
"But no one says, 'Where is God my Maker, who gives songs in the night...[?]'" (Job 35:10, NIV).
"... God left him to test him and discover what was in his heart" (2 Chron. 32:31, ESV).
Robert Robinson wrote the famous hymn "Come Thou Fount" to show his struggle with the faith and how God got him through the hard times. Everyone is subject to backsliding, depression, and wandering from the faith because this is the natural inclination of our sin nature. Robinson was indeed a man of struggles and hardship and suffered melancholy, known today as depression. In fact, in his later years, he would've given anything to feel like he did at twenty-two writing that hymn. It would seem it was a self-fulfilling prophecy. The feelings come and go like a yo-yo and a weather-vane in a storm, but our faith must endure. We must learn Reality 101 that we also must not depend upon feelings as a measure of our faith, but obedience. Sooner or later, we must face the reality of the test of our faith.
We may wonder about the whereabouts of God as Job did ("If only I knew where to find him..." in Job 23:3, NIV) and if He is meeting His end of the deal and if we do really have faith after all. The fact is, is that the same trials make some bitter, and some better. We ought to rejoice in our sufferings (cf. Rom. 5:3) and that we are considered worthy to suffer for His name's sake. There may be times when there seems no hope like Job experienced, or one may be at the end of one's rope and their hope has perished like Jeremiah's. But we must learn to acknowledge Jesus as the Lord of the storm and if He got us to it, He'll get us through it! We don't have to wonder where God is, but where our faith is! God can calm all the storms of life and every stormy relationship or stressful event. We hang in there like Job in Job 14:14, NIV: "...All the days of my hard service I will wait for my renewal to come."
We must feel the pain to be able to relate and to and comfort others in their afflictions (cf. 2 Cor. 1:10)! That's one reason Jesus felt our pains and was a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief"--to identify with us. Even believers may wonder periodically if God is really there, and if He is aware of our situation. But no problem is too trivial or too big for our God to be able to take care of. But note that God didn't explain Himself to Job and doesn't need to explain Himself to us--He's too profound! We all have a cross to bear, a crucible that comes with the territory--no cross means no crown! It is adversity that builds character and if we had no problems our faith could never be tested--and it's more precious than silver and gold. So, when your storm comes, learn to seek God and His presence and the comfort of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Jesus isn't asking anything of us He didn't go through Himself (He didn't exempt Himself from predicaments, adversities, and exigencies) but He was honest enough to warn us to count the cost. No one gets through life trouble free or without any stress or trials; we need it to grow by them though. We must not question where God is, but ask ourselves: Where isn't God? And we must celebrate the fact that the battle is the Lord's, and we are fighting from victory, not for victory. This is where we find out if we have the right stuff to be disciples and what we are made of. We cannot skate through life problem-free! Let's echo Alfred, Lord Tennyson's words: "I hope to see my Pilot face to face when I have crossed the bar." In the meantime, we are to go over to the other side with Jesus at the helm and simply live a life following Him in obedience to prove our faith and love.
Note that God is not playing cosmic hide-and-seek and He is not MIA or missing-in-action! Next time, don't wonder about God, but where you are! The late Francis Schaeffer said, "He is there and He is not silent." St. Augustine of Hippo said, "You made us for yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in you." Pascal, in the same vein, talked of a "God-shaped blank" or vacuum only God can fill! Soli Deo Gloria!
About Me
- Karl Broberg
- I am a born-again Christian, who is Reformed, but also charismatic, spiritually speaking. (I do not speak in tongues, but I believe glossalalia is a bona fide gift not given to all, and not as great as prophecy, for example.) I have several years of college education but only completed a two-year degree. I was raised Lutheran and confirmed, but I didn't "find Christ" until I was in the Army and responded to a Billy Graham crusade in 1973. I was mentored or discipled by the Navigators in the army and upon discharge joined several evangelical, Bible-teaching churches. I was baptized as an infant, but believe in believer baptism, of which I was a partaker after my conversion experience. I believe in the "5 Onlys" of the reformation: sola fide (faith alone); sola Scriptura (Scripture alone); soli Christo (Christ alone), sola gratia (grace alone), and soli Deo gloria (to God alone be the glory). I affirm TULIP as defended in the Reformation.. I affirm most of The Westminster Confession of Faith, especially pertaining to Providence.