“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Psalm 46:1
As Christians, we know theologically that God is everywhere (omnipresent) and knows about everything (omniscient) but in our day to day experience we often feel that He is far away and has forgotten all about us. So very often our feelings govern our thoughts, and then disappointments and doubts can crowd out the Truth that we once believed so strongly.
Scripture declares that:
He (Jesus) will never leave us or forsake us. Hebrews 13v5
He promised that He would be with us unto the end of the age. Matthew 28v20
And that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Romans 8v38,39
God cannot lie. If He could, He wouldn’t be God.
He cannot forget about us, if He could, He wouldn’t be God.
So, what do we do when our circumstances and feelings scream loudly in our heads that God has forsaken us or doesn’t love us anymore?
Go to verse 10 of Psalm 46. “Be still and KNOW that I am God.”
God doesn’t tell us to feel that He is God, but to know that He is God. To know is to be absolutely convinced. We can read God’s Word, yet not be convinced of His truth. We can appreciate the beautiful poetic language of the Psalms yet miss the fact that they convey the truth of His character and His unfailing love for His people.
However, we must not assume that because God loves us so very much we will never experience horrible situations and tragic circumstances while living in this sin cursed world. Jesus tells us that we will go through times of trial. In fact, it often seems that our troubles intensify when we are born again. There is a mystery to Christian suffering that I don’t pretend to understand. I know the depths of darkness of major depressive illness and cannot fully grasp why a good God allows bad thing to happen. If I rely on my thoughts and feelings I would come to the conclusion that either I am being punished by God for my sins, or that He is not so good after all. But neither of these things are true. When we accept Jesus as our Saviour, all the punishment that we deserved has been put on Jesus through His death on the cross. That means we cannot be punished. God is 100% just. He will not punish us for sins that Jesus has already borne on our behalf.
Stop! Pause! Meditate on this truth!
God cannot and will not punish us for the sins past, present or future that we have repented of. Jesus has taken our due punishment and has suffered it Himself. Doesn’t this in itself prove the goodness of God?
Bad things happen to good people because we are living in a broken and fallen world, where everyone thinks that his own way is the right way, even when it brings misery and suffering to others. We can see this so clearly in the world today (2022). Putin believes that Ukraine is a part of Russia, and so it is the right thing to bring that country back under his control. If he has to kill and destroy to do this, then he thinks that is the right thing to do. We see daily the misery and suffering he is imposing on the Ukrainian people.
It is a mistake to equate freedom from pain and suffering as a demonstration of God’s love. God is not a comic book superhero flying through the sky at the speed of light to snatch us away from danger just in the nick of time. God has not promised that. In fact, the devil used this image to tempt Jesus to prove He was the Son of God by throwing Himself down so that the angels could rescue Him, just in the nick of time!
God’s goodness is experienced in the midst of our trials. His Word promises us that He is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Psalm 46v1.
When we really are convinced of this fact then we can look at all our troubles and sorrows in a different light. We will see them as an opportunity to experience His Present Presence in the midst of all our troubles.
