Where is God When I Hurt?
By Alisha Renee
I had never known despair like I did that night. I lay flat on my face before God, pleading for Him to spare the life of a loved one who had expressed dark thoughts of taking their own. I was helpless. And I was a million miles away. At least it felt like it. Where was God in that moment when hope eluded me? Right there… with me.
As I poured out my heart before God, I faced a crossroads of faith. God was either there, or He wasn’t. He was either the source of hope, or He wasn’t. I had no control over the outcome. No way to know the future. The only choice I had was to trust in my God or not. I chose to trust. I could hope in nothing else. With no guarantees of what would happen, I gave the burden over. God could be there for my loved one when I couldn’t. After all, He specialises in meeting people in dark places. He’s not afraid of the dark.
Hope rose with the dawn. My friend was going to be OK. But I wasn’t OK. I was plagued with thoughts of what I could have or should have done differently. I was exhausted, broken, and alone. And my Father met me in that place—through a friend.
After such a harrowing ordeal, wondering what I would wake up to in the morning, I nearly canceled the catch up I had scheduled. I wasn’t in a jovial brunchy kind of mood. But something compelled me to take my broken self out the door and meet my friend anyway. Our business meeting was swept aside and replaced with honest conversation where tears were welcome to do their soul cleaning work. The experience the night before had shaken me, and my beautiful friend sat with me in my pain, listening and sharing.
Later that day, I arrived home to a beautifully packaged gift on our doorstep. Inside was a pyjama set from Peter Alexander. I read the writing on the shirt, ‘Don’t stop dreaming. Keep sleeping.’ I cried—again. This was more than a cute gift; this was comfort in a box with a big red bow. God didn’t want me to lose hope. He knew I just needed some comfort right now, so He sent it through my friend. The gift was from Him.
A lot of people wonder, where is God when life hurts? I can tell you, He’s there… with you. The angels might not announce His presence, and your circumstances might look like hell, but He’s closer than you think. When He sees you hurting, He doesn’t watch from afar, He draws near—and it’s often through the hands and feet of others.
He’s in the gift by the front door. He’s in the home cooked meal delivered to you when you are sick. He’s the voice of encouragement from a stranger, and He’s in the coffee brought to you by a friend. He’s in the phone call, the text message, and in the moment when your counsellor makes room for you on his usually well-guarded day off because he senses it’s important. God is a Father who is moved with compassion, and He moves others with His heart to reach out to you when you need it most. Those gifts are from Him.
God has many names throughout the Bible, but my favorite is ‘Jehovah Shammah’, which means ‘The Lord is there.’ (1). I love how Janette Oke puts it in her book Love Comes Softly, ‘The truth of God's love is not that He allows bad things to happen, it's his promise that he will be there with us--when they do.’ (2)
God shows He’s there for us in many ways—through words of encouragement to our spirit, a special sense of His presence, an idea out of the blue, or a timely Scripture, just to name a few. Those moments are precious and powerful, but let's not forget the way He’s there for us through others.
Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned or their children begging for bread.
Psalm 37:25 (NLT)
God will not abandon you. He can’t. It’s not in His nature. He created You, and He takes care of His own. Sure we may feel alone and abandoned at times, but that is a feeling, not truth.
Beautiful sister, cling tightly to your faith in hard times. Let hope in Him be your anchor as you weather the storm. Jesus is with you in it. He’s OK with storms. And if you’re wondering where He is, look around. Who has He sent on a mission of love? More often than we realise, those moments when others reach out to us are gifts from Him.
PROMPT: If you feel like God has abandoned you in your darkest moment, look again. Who did He send to care for you, to encourage you, to provide for you, to listen to you, to sit with you?
PRAYER: Father, thank you for Your promise that You will always be there, even when I walk through the darkest valley (Psalm 23:4). As I look back on the hard times in my life, please show me where you were. Open my eyes to see the ways you were reaching out to me through others. I also ask that You cultivate a soft spirit within me so I can sense when you’re prompting me to reach out to others who need comfort too.
(1) https://www.bibleinfo.com/en/questions/jehovah-shammah-meaning. Retrieved 6 April 2022.
(2) Oke, J (2003). Love Comes Softly. United States: Bethany House. Sourced from: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/28227-the-truth-of-god-s-love-is-not-that-he-allows. Retrieved 11 April 2022.
