How do you maintain a fervent love for God when you feel God has let you down. What do you do when you feel God has treated you unfairly, left you unprotected, undefended or abandoned. How do you respond to the seeds that lie within you questioning His love and your lack?
How do you keep the pursuit of God the main thing when you feel that the One you’re in pursuit of has, in someway, short-changed you and left you hanging out to dry? It’s not easy.
I have to admit, been there, done that.
The Life of David
The life of David encourages me. In many ways David faced the very same things I am talking about here. His life as a man after God’s own heart is filled with seasons of abandonment, unmet expectations and unanswered prayers.
Psalm 13:1 “How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?”
Psalm 69:1-3 “Save me, O God, for the waters have come up to my neck. I sink in the miry depths, where there is no foothold. I have come into the deep waters; the floods engulf me. I am worn out calling for help; my throat is parched. My eyes fail, looking for my God.
Ever felt like this?
Even though David’s prayers are bold and brutally honest, he never allows his lack nor his circumstances to derail his love and pursuit of God. This is key.
Here are just two responses David gives when things go bad.
Psalm 13:5-6 “But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.”
Psalm 69:30 “I will praise God’s name in song and glorify him with thanksgiving.”
Give Thanks
Personally, in the midst of my disappointment I find strength to do one thing: I look for an occasion to give thanks to the Lord and do it. Why? Giving thanks shifts the atmosphere in my heart.
Initially it’s hard, but the more I give thanks the more my mind is renewed and my spirit is refreshed. His love fills my heart and hope and faith are activated. This is exactly what David did.
Here are a few other things I do when I am struggling in this area.
- I hold fast to knowing that God is love and God is good. I must hold on to these two convictions in every circumstance I face in life. His thoughts and ways are higher than mine. I trust who He is and know that He does all things well. His goal is to conform me into the image of Jesus not merely to make me feel good.
- I continue to worship through my lack of understanding. There really is no other way around it. I display the depths of my love in the place of greatest suffering. Whether I sense injustice or not, I will praise Him.
- I am real with God,honorably. I have learned to go to the Lord and put my thoughts and feelings on the table. I do so with the picture of a Heavenly Father who loves and cares for me.
- I embrace the pain to grow. While facing the circumstance I embrace the pain and try to squeeze every drop out of it to gain greater wisdom and revelation. I want to learn more about God and more about myself. I want the pain to make me not break me.
It’s Possible
Yes, it is possible to grow in your passion for God when you feel like He has left you behind. Your greatest reward is to thank Him in your weakest moment. To worship God when we don’t understand is the supreme offering we give this side of heaven.
Question: Love to get your thoughts on this. Agree or disagree? Share your own experience or what you have observed.
PG – this is soooooooo good. I have a friend who lives in New Jersey that reads your blog and this is just what he needed to hear. Been there too! This is truly the remedy. Thanks!!!!!
Always feels great when I post something and it helps others. I try to write out of my own personal experience and offer what I think is biblically sound and proven in the fires of life itself. Thanks for sharing, Carla and blessings to the friend in New Jersey!
Always feels great when I post something and it helps others. I try to write out of my own personal experience and offer what I think is biblically sound and proven in the fires of life itself. Thanks for sharing, Carla and blessings to the friend in New Jersey!
Good word!
This is exactly what I do, worship Jesus and praise His Name. Yes, it is a push sometimes but I am learning that if I just do it my heart will follow.
Sometimes when I am praying for all of these sick people, I become so sad that there isn’t any improvement in them. It is then that I need to look to Daddy and know that His ways are better than mine and I trust Him to answer according to His timing and not mine. He usually shows me things He is doing in them or in others that are affected by them. Little things like a change of heart or a step closer to Him. All these little things add up and when I step back I see a bigger picture of their growth in God and really that is what it is all about, growing in our relationship with Jesus, coming to know Him better.
In sickness, financial problems and in death He is to be be worshipped, honoured and adored.
Blessings brother,
<
Thanks for the well-thought out comment. Like you said, “He is to be worshipped, honored and adored” — ALWAYS!
Thanks for the well-thought out comment. Like you said, “He is to be worshipped, honored and adored” — ALWAYS!
Good one boss, I think the joy God gives me just knowng him trumps all I am going thru his prescence no doubt is key and thanking Him too I know my steadfast prayers will not be done in vain.
Xavier, great perspective. You are keeping intimacy with God as your top priority. Thanks for the comment.
Pg,
Thanks for this great reminder. It’s been hard being away from my Chop family while helping my dad.
Thru this expierence of caring for my Dad I can see the Lord is wanting to heal so area’s that I thought were healed. Thru everything PaPa is always working! He is!
I can’t tell you how many times I “thought” that I was completely healed of something only to find out there was a little more left. God is good and He will give you grace to finish what He has started. Thanks for posting a comment and joining the discussion
i think this is a subject everyone can relate to – glad you wrote on it. worshiping in the midst of not understanding or having the answers is key for me. i really have related to lamentations 3 as well – reminding myself of His lovingkindness that does not fail me regardless of my present circumstances. i believe it is absolutely realistic that we grow in our passion for the Lord in these trying times – it is where we meet Him most because we have to decide if we really trust His leadership when we do not understand and not only in the easier times. great post.
my recent post: it’s all about perspective
Some real great verses coming out of Lamentations 3 that definitely apply.
Lam. 3:23-25 “Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.The LORD is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him; ”
Good stuff, Charis. Thanks for dropping by and sharing in the discussion.
Really great piece. Thanks for the encouragement and I do share your opinion on ways out of the valley when you feel ‘abandoned by God’. It’s just each new experIence feels increasingly worse than the last and one loses steam with it and you wonder – when exactly is God really going to ‘show up’, not just in scriptural promises but in reality!
I totally understand the tension of this. It’s hard. The difficult seasons some how benefit us if we choose to trust Him in the process. Jesus endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2), He didn’t enjoy it. Some seasons are meant to be endured and many more enjoyed. There are transformations in the “enduring” seasons. God will work all things out for those who love Him. My prayers are with you. He will give you the very strength you need!
Just what I needed to hear. Recently, I had come to a place where I was more obedient to God than ever, and it seems like the gates of hell have broken loose, and it has left me feeling like God has abandoned me when I need him the most, even though for the first time in a while, I having been living in obedience to God. My faith has been shaken like never before, but somehow I also feel stronger in my faith than ever before (as crazy as that sounds). This helps me to “praise through the pain.” Thanks for sharing!
Hello Mia. Sometimes the pain we are experiencing and the trial we are facing, after making the decision to obey God, puts a hole in our spiritual ceiling and creates a way for us to get to the next level. It’s weird. I think the feeling of the “gates of hell being loosed” can be strategic. The gates being open can allow us to advance into the enemies camp and take ground for God. These kinds of things serve only to make us better if we don’t become bitter. May the Lord continue to increase in you greater levels of faith as you move forward in God.
Thanks for that. God bless.