Forsaken, but not Forgotten

Psalm 22:1,3 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me.. But thou art holy, O thou that inhabits the praises of Israel.

Forsaken, but not forgotten. I have never experiences multiple tragedies at one time. But I can imagine those who lose everything in life they love and cherish wondering where God is. “Why have you forsaken me?” are the spoken words cried out in anguish. The heart cries out for answers to know why. I don’t pretend to know all the reasons why God allows some people to go through such unfortunate events in life. I asked myself, “What would I do?” There is reason to be cast down and try to seek answers. It is within our human nature and emotional makeup to cry out and to question.  Like Job and David we seek to find the answers. In the end, it is not necessary that we know why, but it necessary that we know the one who is sovereign and know the beginning to the end. We rest in the glory of God that He knows what is best and trust that His will be done. This is not a cop out for all the suffering people endure, but a reality that we are finite and God is infinite and will do what is right.

Though He Slay Me

Job 13:15 “Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him; but I will argue mine own ways before Him.”-

Job, a man tested without understanding shows us that the things that happen in our life often go without explanation. We do our best to live right before Him and still we face situations that often cast us to the ground. We search our heart to see if there is anything we did that would have grieved the heart of God. We ask God for the reason, and the heavens are silent. We wander in the valley of the shadow, in the darkness of the day looking for a way out. Job was determine to find God in all that was happening to him. He disregarded those who accused him of doing wrong, and made up his mind that he was going to trust God to show him out of the darkness and into the light. He had resigned to possibility that he may die from his suffering, but he knew that God who knows the heart of all men would do what is right for him. The best counsel we have is to keep trusting God, in the good and in the bad times. For God is good, and He knows what is best. 

We Don't Understand

Job 38:4 “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast understanding.”-

It is human nature to want to understand everything that happens to us in life. We seem to think if we can understand why some things happen, then we are more able to accept the circumstance that we face from day to day. Why God allows some things to happen is still a mystery to me. Like job, we question God’s judgment, we don’t see the purpose or good that will come out of it. Like God, we don’t see things from the beginning, we are not all knowing and can only live in the present. That is why we must put our trust in the one who is sovereign and controls the affairs of men. We need to learn to understand that we are finite and God is infinite. We have limitations that keep us from seeing the whole picture. It is not wrong to ask God to give us understanding. It is wrong to question God’s ways and blame God for all that goes wrong. God will not chastise us for crying out for help when we go through times of not knowing why. He delights in our willingness to give everything to Him, even those things we don’t understand.