When Life Feels Hard - God Will Come Through

Have you ever had an experience in life that left you wondering if God had misplaced you in His master plan? As if He had 100 sheep and in His care and attention to the flock somehow you got lost?

We all feel like this from time to time. Overlooked, forgotten, abandoned.

Honest Lament

When we find ourselves in this place, we must know that honest laments and questions are ok. We see this in the Psalms don’t we? Consider Psalm 13:

How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
 How long must I take counsel in my soul
    and have sorrow in my heart all the day?
How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

I love David’s honesty. He is saying, you promised me kingship God! You promised me royalty! What have I gotten? Running for my life.

Instead of the king’s castle, I live in the caves. Instead of commanding the army, I am hunted by it. Instead of peace, I life in fear. “How Long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever?”

David feels forgotten. Like God started this plan and backed away too soon. He laments, and lament is good for the soul. To lament is to express grief or sorrow. How we as Christians often think the expression of grief over difficulty in life is sinful. Learn from the Psalms, it is not. You can have honest conversations with God about how you feel about life and your place in it. There is something therapeutic about it. There is something Holy about it. You don’t have to talk to Him. In the lamenting you are acknowledging God is still there. He is still God.

Lamenting often leads us to a question: Can God be at work when He seems most absent?

The turn

In almost every lament Psalm, David offers honest reflections about His life, and then somewhere near the end “the turn” happens. It’s where his gaze shifts upwards. We see it in Psalm 13. After his expression of feeling forgotten by God:

But I have trusted in your steadfast love;
    my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

The turn from lament to trust.

Grief and trust are not at odds. You can be sad about your life and trust God with it. You can cry and be hopeful. You can feel helpless and turn to God in the same moment. I don’t know what is going on in your life as you read this. I don’t know what pain you hold, disappointment you shoulder, or difficulty you are in.

But I know this, God has never let me down. He has always come through for me. Has He always lifted my sorrow? No. But He has always met me within it.

The life of Joseph

What do you know about the life of Joseph in the Bible? If there was anyone that seems to be forgotten by God, it is surely him. Betrayed by his brothers. Left for dead. Rescued by slave traders. Put into slavery. Rises the ranks and becomes a leader. Falsely accused of sin, put in jail. Helps a fellow prisoner out, the prisoner forgets Joseph for years in the jail.

Surely at more than one point of his life he said: “How long, Oh Lord? Have you forgotten me?”

The turn?

Genesis 50:20 - “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good”.

Life can be hard. Lament, be honest about your grief. Look to God until you find a mustard seed of trust, then hold on. And even if your hand slips, remember that it is His hold of you that secures you, not your hold of His. God is not absent in the darkness and pain. He will supply what you need.

How do we trust?

A simple practice that has helped me when my trust in God has felt lifeless is to take an index card and write a bible verse on it that helps me remember God will always come through. You could choose Genesis 50:20. Write it down and put that card somewhere you will see it often. Use it in your prayer times that week. Ask for help to believe it. Look to God’s faithfulness in others darkness to build trust in Him in your own.

Trusting God,

Josh.