Are you there God?

Psalm 22:1-2

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?  Why are you so far from saving me, from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer, and by night, but I find no rest.”

November 9, 2021

How do you address God?  Do you address Him as God Almighty (or Sovereign King or some other lofty term), as I so often do from the pulpit?  Do you address Him as Father, as Jesus instructed us to do?  Regardless of how you address Him, do you believe Him to be near to you, addressing the situations in your life?

It is easy for us to get to the point in our lives where however we address God, whether personal and close, as in the familiar term of “Father,” or in the lofty term of “King,” we can wind up feeling as if He is not hearing us.  Does it seem as if you keep praying and praying and yet God either does not answer, or He is being silent?

In the verses above, the psalmist (in this case David) cries out to God asking why He seems so far off . . . why it seems as if He is not hearing and answering Him.  It seems as if he has been pleading for an answer, pleading for God to act, for what now seems like a lifetime, and yet he is not seeing any resolution to his problem . . . at least not in his favor.

It is at this point in the message that I would like to pause for a moment and offer a short story: In high school, we used to offer prayers prior to our soccer game.  In one prayer, which still stands out to this day in my mind, the student saying the prayer asked that God would “help us kick their butts.”  So often, we ask God to be on our side to defeat an enemy or an opponent . . . maybe even to mitigate our circumstances.  Yet, in the book of Joshua (Joshua 5:14), Michael says that he is not on one side or the other but that he is the commander of God’s armies and David, above, cries, “Why are You so far . . . from the words of my groaning?”  He wants God to move into his situation and not only mitigate it, but also to deal with those causing the situation.  Yet God loves sinners.

You might be asking, “Is God not looking for my best?”  In a word, “Yes.”  Yet there is a caveat . . . your best is not what you think it is.  Instead, your best is to be intimately connected with God.  Think about the fact that when God finally stepped into Job’s situation, He stepped in not to fix all the bad that had happened (though He did later).  The first and most important fix to the situation was to reveal Himself as He is to Hob.  Our best is to recognize God as He is, not to think ourselves worthy of “our best life now.”

However, I would be remiss to say that is all of the story.  Even Jesus, offered these words from the cross!  Therefore, when you are struggling in life, remember that the psalmists have something to help you in the situation . . . and then arrive at the same place David did . . . “Yet you are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.” (Psalm 22:3)  Spend time praising Him, even in the hard times.  God is there!