{"id":9610,"date":"2012-03-23T11:06:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-23T16:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites-stage.familylife.com\/flministries\/?p=9610"},"modified":"2012-03-23T11:06:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-23T16:06:00","slug":"when-it-seems-like-god-has-abandoned-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp-stage.familylife.com\/www\/articles\/topics\/life-issues\/challenges\/depression\/when-it-seems-like-god-has-abandoned-you\/","title":{"rendered":"When It Seems Like God Has Abandoned You"},"content":{"rendered":"
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You have heard it said that there are no atheists in foxholes. During times of intense crisis, many people who have never had a religious thought are suddenly, with all humility, praying, reciting the Lord’s prayer, and remembering, “The Lord is my shepherd … ” as if these things were encoded in all human DNA.<\/p>\n

But if the problems soon disappear, so do thoughts about God. The warrior goes on his or her way without a word of thanks, let alone long-term faithfulness.<\/p>\n

But what if the battle continues and circumstances don’t change? The humble pleas become questions that might not be angry but at least are bold. “Why, God, are you doing this to me? What have I ever done to you?”<\/p>\n

Suffering nags us with questions about God in a way that comfort never could.<\/p>\n

Feeling like an “atheistic believer”<\/h2>\n

When dire circumstances continue their assault, you might notice the paradox of being an “atheistic believer.” If you were pushed to decide, you would say that God exists, yet you feel increasingly isolated and alone. The more extreme the suffering, the more intense is the sense of aloneness. If God exists<\/em>, you think, it certainly doesn’t feel like He does. <\/em><\/p>\n

At its very roots, life is about God. Whether you shake your fist at Him, consider Him so distant that His existence is irrelevant, or tremble before Him because you feel that you are under His judgment, the reality is this: The basic questions of life and the fundamental issues of the human heart are about God.<\/p>\n

Life is about knowing Him or avoiding Him. It is about spiritual allegiances. Whom will you trust in the midst of pain? Whom will you worship?<\/p>\n

As you consider God, expect to find fallacies in your thinking about yourself and God. In other words, although you may think that you know all you need to know about God\u2014or all you want to know\u2014you don’t. If you resist such an offer, you are probably angry with God, in which case it is all the more<\/em> reason to consider who He is. He invites angry people to come and be surprised.<\/p>\n

Surprise #1: Jesus shared in our sufferings.\u00a0<\/strong>If you invented a religious system, it’s unlikely that you would imagine a god who became like the people He created. But God did even more. He became like His creatures and<\/em> willingly suffered a horrifying death so that they could be spared. Even the men and women who studied Scripture didn’t anticipate that God would come this close. They never guessed that the Messiah, God Himself, would suffer in the way He did.<\/p>\n

If you think God is far away and indifferent, here is the surprising revelation. From the foundation of the world, God knew your sufferings and declared that He Himself would take human form and participate in them (which means that we, too, could share in His). This is not a distant, indifferent God.<\/p>\n

One chapter of Scripture (Mark 14), chronicling only one day, reveals the extent to which Jesus shared our sufferings:<\/p>\n