“What to do When God Disappears”
August 2, 2009
Psalm 42
God had disappeared – or so it must have seemed to David. He was the one who had sat under the night stars with his sheep and communed with God. With the starry host overhead by night and the meadows filled with flowers and romping lambs, God must have seemed very near. God had helped him kill a lion and a bear with just a club. He had helped him kill a giant twice his size with just a sling. David knew what it was to have a close relationship with God. But now he was the king – or the “king in waiting” and with everything going on – he had lost that sweet presence of Almighty God. Listen to his lament.
“My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me all day long, "Where is your God?"
Psalm 42:2-3
“I say to God my Rock, "Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?" Psalm 42:9
Have you ever felt like King David? Have you ever felt alone and abandoned by God? Have you ever felt like God had disappeared and was nowhere to be found? Have you ever felt like God had shut the doors of heaven and no longer heard your prayers and no longer was blessing you?
If King David went through that trial – don’t you think all of us at one time or another will have to go through it, too? I think this is one of the most disturbing of our trials or tests. Sometimes ‘abandonment’ from God comes because of sin. Sin separates us from God. The Bible says,
“But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” Isaiah 59:2
The first thing we need to do when we feel God has left us is to do a thorough inventory of our souls to see if sin has crept into our lives. If it has – we need to repent and continue on our way. But sometimes God seems to disappear and we have done nothing wrong. In fact, we have done everything right. This seems to be what King David is going through. Remember Job? (Job 1) He didn’t do a thing wrong to bring all his trouble on himself. God just allowed him to be tested for a season. It seemed it was to prove to Satan what a good and faithful man Job was. How about Jesus, Himself? On the cross He prayed in anguish, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46)
Sin will separate us from God and His blessings and presence – but if we pass the test and there is no rebellion in our hearts and lives, then what do we do? We continue on. First of all, we continue to place our hope in Jesus.
King David said, “Put your hope in God.” Job said, “Though He slay me, yet will I hope in Him.” (Job 13:15)
The biblical definition of hope is: “The trusting expectation that God will keep His word.”
What that means to us is that we need to continue to “expect and trust” that God will do what He says He will do. We need to expect and trust that we will come through this trial. We need to expect and trust that God loves us and DOES hear our prayer. We need to expect and trust that God will open the doors of heaven once again – and bless us.
Some people don’t do that. They lose their hope. Life becomes spiritually hopeless. They fail the test. The result is they become bitter and angry with God. Some become ‘agnostic’. They believe there must be a divine Being; there must be a God, the evidence is undeniable; but they don’t believe we can know Him or have a personal relationship with Him. We are here and God is way out there somewhere – and doesn’t really care about us. We are pretty much on our own. Isn’t that a sad way to think?
Some people lose hope and think God has deserted them – so they desert God. They are kind of like ‘fair weather’ friends. They are there – as long as the blessings flow. But when the well of blessings run dry – they move on to other things. And they are susceptible to sin.
I think this is what happened to David. God’s presence left him. God’s love and comfort left Him. He prayed and cried and sought God to no avail. After a while his hope waned. And along came a lady by the name of Bathsheba – and David fell into sin. I think David put her in God’s place. He sought his love and comfort and blessing from her. God had forsaken him. God had abandoned Him – or so it seemed. David thought, “God doesn’t care about me. God isn’t here to object. So he sinned – Just like the Israelites did when Moses went up on the mountain to speak with God. They created their own God in the form of a golden calf. We sometimes do that when we ‘lose God’. When God takes His presence and blessing from us for a time – we are susceptible to turn to another God. It may be work or it may be play or it may be something else. Be on guard that you don’t create a false god for yourself.
When you go through this trial of aloneness, don’t lose hope. Continue to expect that blessings are on their way. Hopelessness causes despair. Hopelessness opens the door to sin. Never lose your hope. How do you do that? The bible says,
“For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide we might have hope.” Romans 15:4
When things seem hopeless, get into God’s Word. Read the Bible. Meditate on His promises. Memorize them. Pick out some wonderful promises and claim them for yourself. God will speak to you through them and they will inspire hope.
When God seems to have abandoned you – never lose hope. Secondly, When you are going through this trial, trust yourself to God. It’s a matter of trust, isn’t it? The Bible says,
“So then, those who suffer according to God’s will should commit themselves to their faithful Creator and continue to do good.” 1 Peter 4:19
Trust that God has not forsaken you. He promised He wouldn’t. Trust that God has not left you. He promised He would never leave you. Trust Him. Don’t trust your feelings. God doesn’t want us to live according to our feelings. If you are – maybe that’s why you are going through this trial. We have all heard the poem “Footprints in the sand”, but let me repeat it one more time.
Footprints in the Sand
One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only. This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord, “You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?”
The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”
Sometimes when it seems nothing is happening – something IS happening. Sometimes when you feel all alone – you really aren’t. Trust God. Just continue to do good as an expression of that trust.
The third thing we must do when we feel like God has disappeared from our lives is to continue to be faithful. The Bible says,
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” Hebrews 11:6
God is more interested in you becoming faithful than He is your comfort. I totally believe in a loving rewarding God who blesses those who serve Him. I believe He wants His children to laugh and sing and love. I believe He has planned an eternity something like that. But right now He needs to teach you to be faithful. He wants you to seek Him. He is the center of the universe – you aren’t. We would like to have God run after us and wait on us and give us everything we want. We would like to take God’s place and sit on the throne. We aren’t equipped for it. God needs to teach us to endure and to be faithful – and great trials are usually needed for that lesson.
So how do we grow in faith? The disciples wanted to know. They asked Jesus. Listen to His response.
“The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"
He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ’Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.
"Suppose one of you had a servant plowing or looking after the sheep. Would he say to the servant when he comes in from the field, ’Come along now and sit down to eat’? Would he not rather say, ’Prepare my supper, get yourself ready and wait on me while I eat and drink; after that you may eat and drink’? Would he thank the servant because he did what he was told to do? So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ’We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’ " Luke 17:5-10
In the 5th verse is the question. The 6th verse tells the importance of faith. Jesus, in His little story, tells how to grow in faith. It’s attitude and action. The attitude is, “It’s just our job.” The action is obedience. It’s just that simple. To grow in faith you need to obey with the right attitude. To grow in faith you need to be faithful – not because you are or may be rewarded; not because you want to; not even because it’s an expression of your love. Faith comes by being faithful in spite of how you feel or think or anything else. Just DO it! Just obey.
The trial of separation from God or the “sense or feeling God has abandoned us” may be because God wants you to grow in faith. He wants something more for you. God wants something better for you. Most of us haven’t resisted sin that much – certainly not to the point of shedding our blood, as Hebrews 12 points out. When we feel like David and Job and even Jesus, that God has forsaken us, be faithful. Trust and obey – there IS no other way.
Every Christian goes through these times when God seems so far away. Pay attention to the many songs and poems that reflect the agony of the soul that is going through this. And when YOU go through it – remember these three things. 1. Continue to Hope; 2. Continue to Trust; 3. Continue to be faithful.
If you do these things, you will make it through to the side where God waits with abundant blessings and lavish expressions of love.
