"With God's Grace Our Worst Past
Becomes Our Best Future"
Becomes Our Best Future"
Photo by NASA on Unsplash
Sometimes God speaks to us in the middle of the storm … loud and clear above the tumult.
God spoke to Job out of the whirlwind and reminded him of his sovereignty and humbled Job in his questioning. Though God never gave Job a direct “reason,” Job found comfort in witnessing God’s majesty. This knowledge humbled him. “I uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know … I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees You” (Job 42)
A dear friend, suffering from a devastating illness has recently experienced this valley of numbness … the empty place where she cannot sense God. Though she counts her many blessings, she wonders what God’s plan is in all this. But when she prays, she cannot hear his voice. God’s silence was the worst bruising of all.
I thought back to my own cancer treatment, wondering what was God’s plan in my suffering, especially when I experienced Chemo Brain … a sort of temporary Alzheimer’s. I knew I could manage if God were to bring me home, but why did he keep me around to be seemingly no use to anyone? When I prayed, he seemed so very far away. I could hear nothing. Why didn’t he speak to me out of the noisy tumult or come to me in a whirlwind as he did for Job?
Photo by Ian on Unsplash
Depression can be a side effect of chemo and many medical long-term treatments. We can also feel abandoned during those times of deep emotional or psychological stress. We feel empty. Yes, we read God’s Word. Yes … we pray. Yes, we still go to church. And still, we cannot hear God’s voice in the noise of our suffering. We scream to Heaven, “Where are you God?”
Satan will use those times when our body is the weakest to mute God’s voice and try to convince us he doesn’t care. Like Job, we want answers. We try to find him in the confusion, in the blustery wind of pain.
Why He feels so far away, I don't know. This experience is often a reality in our Christian walk. He reminds me even Christ called out from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
My friend shared how she held to the promise of God, even though she felt he’d abandoned her. This is true Faith … reaching toward him in doubt, continuing to call even when he doesn’t seem to answer, instead of allowing Satan to push us from him. If we will be still and turn our ears away from the whirlwind, he WILL make himself known—not in the noise ... perhaps in a child's smile ... a squeeze of the hand ... or the scent of a flower. Or sometimes in the simple strength of giving us yet another breath.
“Now faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of tings not seen”(Hebrews 11: 1NIV).
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