Hello God

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Hello? God?

10.01.06
various texts

Please bow your heads and close your eyes. As I read this prayer, and these Scriptures…

Maybe this is where you are, or where you’ve been;
Maybe you know of someone who is here right now…

“God, where are you!? What have I done to make you hide form me? Are you playing cat and mouse with me, or are your purposes larger than my perceptions? I feel alone, lost, forsaken.

“You are the God who majors in revealing yourself. You showed yourself to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When Moses wanted to know what you looked like, you obliged him. Why them and not me?

“I am tired of praying. I am tired of asking. I am tired of waiting. But I will keep on praying and asking and waiting because I have nowhere else to go.

“Jesus, you, too, knew the loneliness of the desert and the isolation of the cross. And it is through your forsaken prayer that I speak these words. Amen.”

Prayer, Richard Foster, pgs.24-25

Psalm 22:1-2 NLTrev

… My God, my God! Why have you forsaken me? Why do you remain so distant? Why do you ignore my cries for help? 2 Every day I call to you, my God, but you do not answer. Every night you hear my voice, but I find no relief.

Psalm 27:9 NLTrev

Do not hide yourself from me. Do not reject your servant in anger. You have always been my helper. Don't leave me now; don't abandon me, O God of my salvation!

Psalm 42:9 NLTrev

"O God my rock," I cry, "Why have you forsaken me? Why must I wander in darkness, oppressed by my enemies?"

Psalm 55:1-8 NLTrev

… Listen to my prayer, O God. Do not ignore my cry for help! 2 Please listen and answer me, for I am overwhelmed by my troubles. 3 My enemies shout at me, making loud and wicked threats. They bring trouble on me, hunting me down in their anger. 4 My heart is in anguish. The terror of death overpowers me. 5 Fear and trembling overwhelm me. I can't stop shaking. 6 Oh, how I wish I had wings like a dove; then I would fly away and rest! 7 I would fly far away to the quiet of the wilderness. 8 How quickly I would escape – far away from this wild storm of hatred.

Psalm 69:1-3 NLTrev

… Save me, O God, for the floodwaters are up to my neck. 2 Deeper and deeper I sink into the mire; I can't find a foothold to stand on. I am in deep water, and the floods overwhelm me. 3 I am exhausted from crying for help; my throat is parched and dry. My eyes are swollen with weeping, waiting for my God to help me.

There are many other such Scriptures… you get the point.

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“Times of seeming desertion and absence and abandonment appear to be universal among those who have walked this path of faith before us.” ibid. pg.17

What would ever make us think that any of us should escape these times as well?

With a show of hands, how many of you have had - or, are having - times when it felt like God was absent, nonexistent… times when your prayers felt like they were merely bouncing off the walls and ceiling of the dark room you were agonizing in?

During these times we know God is always with us everywhere… or do we?

The first thing I want to say here is a word of encouragement… You are not alone! Christians throughout the centuries have gone through these:

“Dark nights of the soul”
“Clouds of unknowing”
“Dark nights of faith”
Even Jesus Himself did!

Which brings me quickly to another word of encouragement: Not only are we in good company, but these desert times do not necessarily mean God is displeased with us, that we have committed some sin, or have somehow become hardened to the Spirit of God.

This is where the enemy of our souls often tries his best to “eat our lunch;”

accusing us,
beating us up,
filling us with lies about God, ourselves, etc.

I think we’ve talked before about how people who are new in their Christian faith often experience unusual times of excitement and blessing; visible and tangible outpourings of God’s goodness upon their lives.

Much like the pampering of a newborn baby.

It is also true that those who have walked on the journey of faith for a great time and/or distance are too often plagued by dark canyons of spiritual barrenness.

You might wonder if there’s a way to predict when times of feeling out of touch with God will come?

My thought:

As we’re in a living, dynamic relationship with the God who gives us the free will to choose to be in that relationship, maybe He allows spiritual dry times to come to test our resolve in our relationship with Him.

Not only that, but, if we could always get God to appear and grace us with a sense of His presence whenever we called out to Him, wouldn’t that kind of be manipulative on our part?

We ring the bell for God, and He comes running to us.

“God, the great iconoclast, is constantly smashing our false images of who he is and what he is like.” Ibid. pg.20

What’s an iconoclast? A breaker or destroyer of images.

So, it could be that during these tough times God is actually blessing us by not allowing us to form, or continue to form, false images and ideas of Who He truly is and what He’s all about.

“In the very act of hiddenness God is slowly weaning us of fashioning him in our image. Like Aslan, the Christ figure in The Chronicles of Narnia, God is wild and free and comes at will [His will]. By refusing to be a puppet on our string or a genie in our bottle, God frees us from our false, idolatrous images. Ibid. pg.20

Being totally honest, what’s your image of God today?

Do you somehow believe that if you do or don’t do certain things then God is obliged to jump when you say jump?
Do you somehow believe, or act as if you believe, that God can be managed by how much you go to church, give to others, pray, read your Bible, etc?

God is not to be conquered, but to be conquered by. Ibid. pg.22

God is not to be the controllee, but the Controller.

~~~~~~~~

Have you ever thought of the gamble God takes whenever He allows His children to go through spiritual droughts? For instance:

Whenever God is silent:
He hopes His children are rooted in the reality that He always has our best interests in the depths of His loving father heart, but
He risks His children coming to believe that He is a cruel, sadistic tyrant.

Through this gamble:

God is purifying our faith by threatening to destroy it;.
We come to understand our own superficial desires;
We are awakened to the futility of trusting in things and people other than God, and see God alone as all sufficient.
God is producing detachment, humility, perseverance, and patience.

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So, what are we supposed to do during these spiritual droughts; these times of barrenness?

Complain? Yes! Complain! You can’t get any more scriptural than to complaining during “dark nights of the soul” because that’s what Scripture is full of; complaints.

There are several Psalms known as laments that demonstrate how it’s okay to cry out to God regarding our inner conflicts and struggles; our feelings of being abandoned and forsaken.

These Psalms, written by flesh and blood people just like you and me, show us it’s okay to shake our fists at God one moment, then praise Him the next; and vice versa.

For example:

Job, in the midst of all his tribulations as God and the devil were in a wager over his soul, of which Job was unaware, said:

Job 13:15 NKJV

Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him. Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him.

The Psalmist:

Psalm 42:9 NLTrev

"O God my rock," I cry, "Why have you forsaken me? Why must I wander in darkness, oppressed by my enemies?"

Psalm 109:1-2 NLTrev

… O God, whom I praise, don't stand silent and aloof 2 while the wicked slander me and tell lies about me.

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When God is silent in our lives, let me suggest we continue doing in the dark tough times what we did in the lighter joyous times; namely, keep praying, worshiping, serving, listening, waiting, etc.

I believe as we do we’ll come to understand, among other things, how God longs for us to love Him for Him, and not just for what He so often graciously and generously gives to us.

And, we also always need remember that while the wilderness may be necessary as God is in the process of molding us into the likeness of Jesus (see Romans 8:29), it is never permanent.

“In God’s time and in God’s way the desert will give way to a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Ibid. pg.24

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“Thou art never weary, O Lord, of doing us good. Let us never be weary of doing thee service. But, as thou hast pleasure in the prosperity of thy servants, so let us take pleasure in the service of our Lord, and abound in thy work, and in thy love and praise evermore.”

John Wesley