Road Warriors: Jeremiah—A Message of Survival - Wednesday
Psalm 34:18
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. (NIV)
When I was a little girl, I loved playing hide-and-go-seek… except I ALWAYS wanted to be the “hider.” And I always did it in ways that gave my mother high blood pressure. When I was three years old, our family went to the Mall of America in Minneapolis, MN. It’s got almost five million square feet (over 90 acres) of retail and entertainment wonder—and in my three-year-old brain, I thought “Yes! The perfect place to hide!”
I was a pretty squirrely (and fearless) little kid, so I managed to escape the watchful eye of my parents and go hide in a store. I thought it was hilarious. My parents tell a different story. By the grace of God and with the help of some other adults, they did eventually find me (much to my chagrin, and their relief). They were not a fan of hide-and-go-seek after that.
Sometimes when we feel worry, pain, or suffering, it feels like God is playing hide-and-go-seek with us. And it’s not very fun. There are times when we want nothing more than to feel Him near us, and we just… don’t. He seems distant, or hard to hear, or nowhere to be found, and we ask the question, Where is God when I’m hurting?
Our feelings and emotions are powerful gifts from God that we should pay close attention to, but thankfully, they aren’t our ultimate source of truth—the Bible is. So even if/when we don’t FEEL God near us in our pain, the truth is that He is right there with us. Sometimes He will make that known deep in our hearts through our feelings and emotions, and sometimes we trust that it is true simply because He says so (even if our feelings say otherwise).
The reason why any of us can bear the pain of life at all is because we do not have to face it alone. We have a God who is not only present in our pain, but who understands it. Author and theologian John Stott said, “I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross… In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?” We are able to face the suffering of life because our Savior faced the suffering of death—and in conquering it, He gave us an eternal hope free of pain and suffering, where all we will know is the joy of God's glorious presence. But until then, even in our pain, we worship the One who will never leave us: Immanuel. God WITH us.
Wednesday’s Reflection
If you are currently in a difficult season of life, or want to be a better support to someone who is, I have found this book to be quite a helpful resource.
