God Is Real, No Matter How I Feel

In Isaiah 8:17 I read, “The LORD has hidden himself from his people, but I trust him and place my hope in him." (GNT)

It’s easy to worship God when things are going great in life, when he’s provided food, friends, family, health, and happy situations. But circumstances are not always pleasant. So, how do I worship God then? What do I do when God seems a million miles away?

The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during a trial, trusting him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving him when he seems distant.

The writer Philip Yancey once noted, “Any relationship involves times of closeness and times of distance, and in a relationship with God, no matter how intimate, the pendulum will swing from one side to the other.” That’s when worship gets difficult.

In order to mature my friendship, God will test it with periods of seeming separation, times when it seems as if he has abandoned or forgotten me. St. John of the Cross referred to these days of spiritual dryness and doubt as “the dark night of the soul.”

King David understood days like these. Even though God called him “a man after my own heart” (Acts 13:22 NIV), David sometimes complained about God’s apparent absence:

“Lord, why are you standing aloof and far away? Why do you hide when I need you the most?” (Psalm 10:1 TLB).

“My God, my God, why have you abandoned me? Why are you so far away when I groan for help?” (Psalm 22:1 NLT).

“Why have you abandoned me?” (Psalm 43:2 GNT).

Of course, God hadn’t really left David, and he’ll never leave me. God has promised repeatedly, “I will never leave you; I will never abandon you” (Hebrews 13:5 GNT).

In summary, the LORD has hidden himself from his people, but I will trust him and place my hope in him. It’s easy to worship God when things are going great. But circumstances are not always pleasant. So, how do I worship God then? What do I do when God seems a million miles away? The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during a trial, trusting him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving him when he seems distant. In order to mature my friendship, God will test it with periods of seeming separation, times when it seems as if he has abandoned or forgotten me. King David understood days like these. David sometimes complained about God’s apparent absence in Psalms, “why are you aloof and far away, hide when I need you the most, why have you abandoned me? God hadn’t really left David, and he’ll never leave me. God has promised repeatedly, “I will never leave you; I will never abandon you”.

Isaiah decided to wait for the Lord. Patient waiting becomes the most difficult testing I can face. I'm reminded that many of the prophecies God gave through the prophets would not come true for 700 years; others still haven't been fulfilled. I need to be willing to accept the Lord's timing and not mine.