Comfort When God Feels Far Away
“This is my comfort in affliction: for thy word hath quickened me.” - Psalm 119:50 (KJV)
The conditions of a world cursed by the fall come with enormous consequences: crisis, chaos, confusion, death, disease, disaster, lovelessness, loneliness and loss. Due to the fallen nature of our world, we can expect difficulties. The truth about trials is not a matter of what, but when. None of us will be exempt from the encroachment of seasons of anguish and affliction or as King Solomon calls them, “evil days.”
“Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw nigh, when thou shalt say, ‘I have no pleasure in them.’” Ecclesiastes 12:1 (KJV, emphasis mine)
Sometimes when a soul is saturated with the storms of life we reason and respond with the ruling influence of our feelings. Our emotions tell us: God has lied to me. He broke His promise. He is inconsistent and unreliable. He has abandoned me. He hates me. God feels so far away!
But what do the Scriptures, God’s revealed Word to us, say?
“God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?” Numbers 23:19 (KJV)
“That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast.” Hebrews 6:18-19a (KJV)
“Yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.” Isaiah 46:11b (KJV)
According to the Scriptures, God does not lie and His promises are yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). The truth is that when we choose to doubt God’s promises, we are calling Him a liar and are guilty of blatant blasphemy.
My brother and sisters, deeply loved by God, it’s essential that we escape the failing of feelings and fix ourselves in faith that focuses on the Word of God. In Psalm 119:50, the writer tells us that he trusted the Word of God in his trials and he was rewarded with the reality that God will comfort and sustain his life.
“Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.” 2 Corinthians 1:3-4 (KJV)
Do you see the dramatic contrast between the deceptive depiction our flesh gives to our circumstances versus the Word of God? Our fleshly feelings tell us that God must be harsh and tyrannical to allow us to go through trials. Yet the truth of Scripture tells us that He offers tenderness and comfort to us in the midst of difficulties, like an earthly father soothing a hiccuping, hysterical child.
God cements His commitment to us in all circumstances. Our good, great and gracious God is not like a man who lies and breaks His promises. So do not fix yourself on a God who is a figment of your flesh. It is a miserable mistake to look at life with the binoculars of the flesh or with emotional telescopes. The lenses of truth, the Word of God, will make life lucid in light of His Word.
For the Glory of God,
PBKSR