FORSAKEN AND ALONE

"My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me?"

—Psalm 22:1

HAVE YOU EVER FELT LIKE EVEN GOD HIMSELF DOES NOT CARE?

You're not alone.

King David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, also felt this way. I've felt this way. Some of my friends have felt this way.

I could give you platitudes about Jesus never leaving us or forsaking us, or believing even when you don't feel like it, but, let's face it, that doesn't help when you're in utter despair. When you are devoid of hope, you need help, not cliches.

So what do you do? You're lost, alone. You feel like if you died right now, nobody would even notice. They would just go on their happy little blissful lives, barely recognizing that you ever even existed. All you want is someone to care, but nobody seems to. So where do you go? You can't go to other people, because even if they don't care, you have to be strong for them. They might not realize what you do for them, but you know what it would be like if you didn't have a smile on your face today. If you just quit, you know how they could be affected. So where? Pastors preach to go to God, but you don't know how. You are at the end of your rope, and it's too hard to hold on.

What did David do?

He prayed. He reminded God of stories he'd heard of the power of God. David reminded the Lord He delivered those that trusted in Him. He told God what other people thought of him in his despair. He reminded God that he himself had trusted in Him. He begged Him to help and told Him that he was at the end of his strength. He had no more. He could not go on. He implored God to deliver his very soul. 

Sound familiar? I have no idea what you're going through, but I've been here. You know you're saved, but you feel like everyone has abandoned you, that no one cares. You feel like even God has walked out on you. Yeah. But we don't like to admit it, because we will be given a few Scripture references and then left alone again. Scripture is good, but sometimes just throwing out a verse doesn't help. So what do we do?

David got it all out of his system. Not to people; not to someone who could be hurt worse than he was, but to God. To the One Who would not be adversely affected by his rant. After he was emotionally spent, he was able to remember the only thing that would help—he remembered WHO GOD IS. He remembered that the Lord was worth serving, worshiping even: not because God did anything for David, but because the Lord of hosts is worthy. He praised the Holy One simply for Who He is.

I've said this before, I'll say it again—everything in the Christian life comes down to knowing God. Do you know Him well enough so that when you are in the depths of despair He is enough to sustain you? It's okay to rant, to be down, to feel worthless and forsaken, but in the end, you must remember that the Lord is Jehovah God, that He is everything you need.

David said in the very next Psalm that the Lord was his Shepherd and he would not want. God became everything David needed. Malachi 3:6 states that God never changes; He was everything David needed, and He is everything we need, but do you know Him well enough to be able to rest solely, completely, in Him? We need to ABIDE in Christ; stay with Him daily, hourly. Meditate morning and night, not just one or the other. Learn Christ. Know Who He is, what He can do. Make your God bigger than anything this world can even fathom. He is bigger than the universe, but is He bigger than your universe? Your God is only as big as you know Him to be.

We have the mind of Christ because we have the Bible (1 Corinthians 2:15). Get inside His mind, learn Him; learn Who He is, so you can trust Him. Get in the Bible; pray for wisdom, guidance, and illumination, and

let the Holy Spirit teach you to know God.

When you know God for Who He is, nothing else matters.