25^th August

“O Lord, how long will You forget me? Forever? How long will You look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day?”

Psalm 13:1-2a

Over the last few days we have been looking at Job’s Godly response to trouble and affliction and his attitude of worshipping through the storm. Yet if we are honest, although that is the standard and reaction that we should be pursuing, it is not always our first instinct. Many times, when we are going through struggles and hard times, we cry out to God as David does in this vulnerable and honest Psalm. ‘God where are You?’ ‘Why do I feel alone?’ ‘I can’t do this without YOU!!’ Friends, it is ok to ask these questions. If David did, whom God called a man after His own heart, then surely even he, as close as he was with God, felt alone sometimes.

When we look back over the book of Job, we see too, influenced by his friends and feeling alone and abandoned, Job crying out to God, ‘I cry to You, O God, but You don’t answer. I stand before You, but You don’t even look.’(Job 30:20) If we are honest, how many of us have asked these questions too? Yet, and that is a big yet, that is not where the story finishes. Friends we are not alone. We might feel it for a time, but we are not alone, YOU are not alone. God really is with you.

David in Psalm 13 concludes with this wonderful truth, ‘But I trust in Your unfailing love. I will rejoice because You have rescued me. I will sing to the LORD because He is good to me.’ Suffering, pain and sorrow will not last. Our heads will be lifted up above our enemies, above our circumstances and above the silence and we will see the Lord’s goodness. We will shout with joy and sing praises to God. We will sing new songs to Him. Our suffering, our pain won’t last. God is at hand.

Job too, finally came to this same conclusion, that God is far greater than all other things. ‘I know that you can do anything and no one can stop you. . I had only heard about You before, but now I have seen You with my own eyes.’ Moreover, God restored everything that had been taken away from Job, ‘in fact’, as the Bible says, ‘the Lord gave him twice and much as he had before!’ Friends, God is going to bless you. Yes, cry out to God, be honest before Him, but know you are not alone.