1. Where is He?
It always amazed me that the minute I dropped my two year
old off in the Church nursery, the moment I turned the corner, she would freak
out. As soon as she was not aware of my presence, she wanted no part of it!
That’s the way we feel when we look up and all of a
sudden it appears as if the Lord has left us alone. Without notice, something
unravels, a tragedy hits us hard, or we experience some loss or misfortune that
makes us think that God has left us alone to fend for ourselves. In the midst
of trials and problems, there is often confusion and pain that obscures the
light and presence of God. Where is He?
Moses felt the same way. God had personally spoken to Moses:
told him that He knew him by name and that Moses had found favor in His sight.
Moses desire was to progressively become
more deeply and intimately acquainted with [God], and Moses wanted to find
favor in God’s sight. Moses said If Your
Presence does not go with me, do not carry us up from here! (Exodus
33.13-15) God had promised that His
presence would go with Moses and He would give Moses rest. Yet often God’s presence
was obscured from Moses by the problems of leading approximately one million
complaining and murmuring people through a desert.
But God heard Moses prayer: God wanted Moses to have a
faith that knew God’s presence despite his circumstances.
Where are YOU? Are you going through a situation, a time,
a season where you feel God is not there?
Like Job, do you cry out, MY
SPIRIT is broken, my days are spent (snuffed out); the grave is ready for me.
(Job 17:1 AMP) I’m not letting up—I’m
standing my ground. My complaint is legitimate. God has no right to treat me
like this— it isn’t fair! If I knew where on earth to find him, I’d go straight
to him. I’d lay my case before him face-to-face, give him all my arguments
firsthand. I’d find out exactly what he’s thinking, discover what’s going on in
his head. I travel East looking for him—I find no one; then West, but not a
trace; I go North, but he’s hidden his tracks; then South, but not even a
glimpse. (Job 23:2–5 and 8–9 MESSAGE)
Are you like Joseph, hanging onto a coat and a dream that
you believed was from God, yet thirteen years later after being sold into slavery
and put in prison wrongfully still no sign of God seeing you?
From the time Abraham lived in Egypt until the time the
Israelites were delivered was 430 years. Do you, like the Israelites, feel
imprisoned in Egypt: so burdened to
make bricks without straw, and carry
so many burdens for the pomp and majesty of worldliness that you feel that you
can never get to live the life God promised?
Do you, like David, say, I will ask God, my rock, Why have you forgotten me? Why must I walk
around in mourning? With a shattering blow to my bones, my enemies taunt me.
They ask me all day long, Where is your God? (Psalm 42.9-11)
2. How can you find Him?
v Strengthen and encourage
yourself in the Lord.
When David lost everything, he encouraged and
strengthened himself in the Lord his God and with trust in Him (1 Sam 30.6)
When Hezekiah was threatened to be taken out, he ran into
the presence of the Lord and laid out everything his enemies threatened, giving
it to the Lord to handle (2 Kings 19.14)
Job dialogued with God until His spiritual eyes saw God. (Job 42.5)
Jacob wrestled with God (Genesis 32.28).
v Call a prayer meeting; get
confirmation from other believers from what God has done in their lives.
Mary ran to Elizabeth for confirmation of what God had
done (Luke 1.39).
Jehoshaphat was faced with double armies against him, and
he sought the Lord and called a prayer meeting to ask the Lord for help (2
Chronicles 20.3-4) He cried out to God and looked to Him (2 Chronicles 20.9 and
12) And Jahaziel reminded Jehoshaphat not to be afraid, because the battle
isn’t his but God’s. You shall not need
to fight in this battle; take your positions, stand still, and see the
deliverance of the Lord [Who is] with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Fear not nor
be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you. (2
Chron 20.15b; 17) They Israelites didn’t even have to fight, but the enemies
killed each other!
v Pray and praise God.
In the inner dungeon, with their feet in stocks, Paul and
Silas prayed and sung hymns to God while imprisoned, until the chains fell off
(Acts 16.24-26)
v Put your hope and trust in
God before you even see Him working.
Why are you discouraged, my soul? Why are you so
restless? Put your hope in God, because I will still praise him. He is my
savior and my God.”
(Psalms 42:11 GWORD)
Although Joseph hadn’t received his answer for 13 years,
he testified to Pharaoh that God was faithful to shortly bring to pass what He established. (Genesis 41.32)
Esther decided to do what had to be done and trust God
for the answer, and if she perished, she would perish (Esther 4.16).
3. Mature Faith
God wants us to grow up. Just as I left my toddler and
wanted her to know that I was there for her even if she couldn’t see me, God
wants us to know that even when we suffer loss or go through tragedy, He is
there to walk with us and help us through. He will even turn all things around
for our good if we let Him. He doesn’t operate us like His puppets, but as a
loving parent, He is there to help us heal through our hurts and pains and to
bring us to ultimate victory. Put your hope and trust in God even if you don’t
see or understand what you are going through.
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego declared to King
Nebuchadnezzar, If you throw us in the
fire, the God we serve can rescue us from your roaring furnace and anything
else you might cook up, O king. But even if he doesn’t, it wouldn’t make a bit
of difference, O king. We still wouldn’t serve your gods or worship the gold
statue you set up. (Daniel 3:17–18 MESSAGE)
Even if the fig tree does not bloom and the vines have no
grapes, even if the olive tree fails to produce and the fields yield no food,
even if the sheep pen is empty and the stalls have no cattle— even then, I will
be happy with the LORD. I will truly find joy in God, who saves me. The LORD
Almighty is my strength. He makes my feet like those of a deer. He makes me
walk on the mountains. (Habakkuk 3:17–19 GWORD)
For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the
LORD. For as the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8–9 KJV)
He sees, He hears, He cares. The Lord told
Moses, I have seen the misery of my
people in Egypt, and I have heard them crying out because of the slave drivers.
I know how much they’re suffering. I have come to rescue them… and to bring them to a good land… He
told him, I have heard their cries, and I have seen their oppression. (Exodus
3:7–10 GWORD)
Job’s faith declared, For
I know that my Redeemer and
Vindicator lives, and at last He [the Last One] will stand upon the earth. (Job
19:25 AMP)
4. Know His Presence and His Strength With You Even if the
Situation Doesn’t Change
Many in Hebrews 11 won
divine approval by [means of] their faith, but did not receive the fulfillment of what was promised. (Hebrews
11:39 AMP)
Although
the Israelites had to wander 40 years, God in His manifold mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness: the pillar of the cloud departed not from
them by day, to lead them in the way; neither the pillar of fire by night, to
show them light, and the way wherein they should go.
He gave
His spirit to instruct them and He fed them and gave them water. He sustained
them for 40 years [so that] they lacked nothing; their
clothes waxed not old, and their feet swelled not. (Deuteronomy 9.19-21)
In Matthew 17, at the mount of Jesus’ transfiguration –
Moses was there in the promised land: Jesus ultimately fulfilled all of the
promises God made to Moses.
5. See the Situation Through Eyes of Eternity
But what of that?]
For I consider that the sufferings of this present time (this present life) are
not worth being compared with the glory that is about to be revealed to us and in us and for us and conferred
on us! (Romans 8.18)
Joni Eareckson Tada, who never was healed from
quadriplegia, said, He has chosen not to heal me,
but to hold me. The more intense the pain, the closer His embrace… Maybe the
truly handicapped people are the ones that don’t need God as much.
For which cause we faint not; but
though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is
but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; While we look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are
seen are temporal; but the
things which are not seen are
eternal. (2
Corinthians 4:16–18 KJV)
So we’re not giving up. How could
we! Even though on the outside it often looks like things are falling apart on
us, on the inside, where God is making new life, not a day goes by without his
unfolding grace. These hard times are small potatoes compared to the coming
good times, the lavish celebration prepared for us. There’s far more here than
meets the eye. The things we see now are here today, gone tomorrow. But the
things we can’t see now will last forever. (2 Corinthians 4:16–18 MESSAGE)
