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The Way
by Kevin Pauley
Do not hide Your face from me; do not turn Your servant away in anger. You have been my help; do not leave me or abandon me, God of my salvation. Even if my father and mother abandon me, the LORD cares for me. - Psalm 27:9-10 HCSB
It would have been easy for David to feel abandoned. He had done nothing wrong and yet he was a hunted man. His loyalty had been rewarded with treachery. His humility had run headlong into paranoid pride and apparently lost! Those of us who know “the rest of the story” know that he had not been abandoned, but we must not fail to empathize with what it must have been like for David during those dark days.
If we are feeling abandoned, we must first make sure that we are not forcing God’s hand.[1] God’s patience can end. If we insist on keeping to our sinful ways, God can give up on us and become our enemy.[2] The people of Israel kept insisting on their own way and reaped the worst consequence possible – abandonment by God.[3]
However, feelings of spiritual abandonment do not always reflect the truth of the situation. Moses spent 40 years in the desert as a shepherd, an occupation that his Egyptian upbringing would have taught him to despise. He could have felt that God had abandoned him, put him on a shelf. But the fact was Moses was the one who had gotten ahead of God and done things his own way. As a result, he was dealing with the consequences.[4]
Moses met a nice girl, settled down and had a family, but we get a glimpse of how he felt inside when we see what he named his son.[5] At first Moses felt abandoned by God, left to rot as a stranger in a foreign land, but the truth was that God was deeply concerned about the whole situation and had a plan.[6]
Jesus knows what it feels like to feel abandoned by His loved ones and even the Father. He experienced the same feelings when He came and lived among us.[7] Notice however that even in His extreme distress and when He felt abandoned by God, the Master still quoted Scripture. We cannot rely on our feelings. Feelings are fickle. Feelings do not always reflect the truth. We must depend entirely on the Word of God.
Because we have a high Priest who understands our feelings and empathizes with us, we should more boldly approach the Throne in prayer so that we might have the grace and strength we need to face our situation.[8]
At those times when we feel the most abandoned we should, by faith, turn to God in prayer. Even when we don’t know what to say; even when we are angry with Him; even when we don’t understand – we need to talk to Him. He has a plan. He knows what He’s doing.[9]
[2] Genesis 6:11-13; Romans 1:18-31
Kevin Pauley is a pastor and writer. He lives in Illinois with his wife, Lynn, their five children and two dogs. His internet address is Berea.
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