He Has Been Good To Me
>> Tuesday, January 22, 2013 –
bible,
devotion,
reflection,
tyler,
verse
Do you have one of those days when you feel that God is hiding from you? Why hasn't he answered your prayers? Those days when the message of Psalm 13:1 "How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?" feels more accurate than ever?
After we lost Tyler, we often hear people say how strong our faith in God is. They would say it's a good thing we didn't 'give up' on the Lord. I often wonder why people would say that. I don't really know how to answer them because, for me, there wasn't any other way but to continually trust Him. The last paragraph of my devotion below explains it beautifully and i would like to share it with all of you.
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One of the hardest challenges I’ve faced is finding God in loss. I remember sitting with a mother in a hospital, praying for the recovery of her daughter. The daughter had been married only a year. While delivering the woman’s baby, the doctor nicked something with his knife. Now the young woman was fighting for her life.
Her mother was inconsolable. When we prayed, she felt no peace. Within hours, her daughter was gone. After that, the mother stopped going to church. The young husband was angry and didn’t know how to care for his baby alone. Where was God?
That question is often asked in suffering or loss. And often the only answer appears to be silence. The promises of Scripture fade in the agony of sorrow. The Holy Spirit seems to withdraw from hearts that grow chilly. Where is God when airplanes crash? Where is God when a spouse is unfaithful? Where is God when a baby dies? Where is God?
Psalm 13 echoes those concerns. In verse 1, the psalmist David asks God, “How long will you hide your face from me?” But this isn’t the end of the psalm. Rather, the psalmist goes on to assure us that our God, who is enthroned on high, stoops low to see and hear and know us—even when we can’t see his face and his words are like a foreign language to us.
“I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation,” said David (Psalm 13:5). Likewise we continue to love and trust God, not for what we get out of it right now, but because it is the only way to make sense of this life. We trust in God, not because we always feel the wonder of his divine presence, but because there is truly no one else to turn to but God. And in time we will live to say, “He has been good to me” (Psalm 13:6).
- Wayne Brouwer
After we lost Tyler, we often hear people say how strong our faith in God is. They would say it's a good thing we didn't 'give up' on the Lord. I often wonder why people would say that. I don't really know how to answer them because, for me, there wasn't any other way but to continually trust Him. The last paragraph of my devotion below explains it beautifully and i would like to share it with all of you.
**********************************************************************************
One of the hardest challenges I’ve faced is finding God in loss. I remember sitting with a mother in a hospital, praying for the recovery of her daughter. The daughter had been married only a year. While delivering the woman’s baby, the doctor nicked something with his knife. Now the young woman was fighting for her life.
Her mother was inconsolable. When we prayed, she felt no peace. Within hours, her daughter was gone. After that, the mother stopped going to church. The young husband was angry and didn’t know how to care for his baby alone. Where was God?
That question is often asked in suffering or loss. And often the only answer appears to be silence. The promises of Scripture fade in the agony of sorrow. The Holy Spirit seems to withdraw from hearts that grow chilly. Where is God when airplanes crash? Where is God when a spouse is unfaithful? Where is God when a baby dies? Where is God?
Psalm 13 echoes those concerns. In verse 1, the psalmist David asks God, “How long will you hide your face from me?” But this isn’t the end of the psalm. Rather, the psalmist goes on to assure us that our God, who is enthroned on high, stoops low to see and hear and know us—even when we can’t see his face and his words are like a foreign language to us.
“I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation,” said David (Psalm 13:5). Likewise we continue to love and trust God, not for what we get out of it right now, but because it is the only way to make sense of this life. We trust in God, not because we always feel the wonder of his divine presence, but because there is truly no one else to turn to but God. And in time we will live to say, “He has been good to me” (Psalm 13:6).
- Wayne Brouwer
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This is so touching. Yes, it is true. When you are pushed to the wall because of too much pain, you learn to trust only in the Lord. But it is so much easier sad than done if you are in the midst of great suffering. Always - fear, mistrust and anger set in. But the Holy Spirit never fails to inch His way back into our hearts when there is nowhere else to go. He manifests himself in plenty of ways. Thank you for this post! I am in the midst of worries right now - I am full of insecurities and fear. I am so faithless but somehow the Lord led me to your website again. I feel that through you, the Lord is again reassuring me to not be afraid of anything for He will show me the way..... Mommy Marie
Wow, what an honor to be used by the Lord to speak to you! May you experience the peace that can only come from Him, Mommy Marie. I always say this - he loves us so much and he has the power to do great things in our lives. Great Love + Great Power = Abundant Life! What more can we ask for?
Thank you for taking the time to write. It is very uplifting.