God promises to be with us always
Heb 13:5 …for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.
Deu 31:6 Be strong and of a good courage. Do not fear nor be afraid of them. For Jehovah your God is He who goes with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you.
God has promised that He will never leave us nor forsake us. But there are times when we do not feel His presence. Circumstances in our life can turn so bad that we can’t see how God is in the midst of it.
While God promises that He will always be with us, it is also true that we do not always feel His presence. There will be times when we feel that God has forsaken us.
People closest to God have felt abandoned by God
Perhaps one of the people closest to God was King David. He was called a man after God’s own heart. Yet we know David had many periods where he felt so abandoned by God. He penned these down for us in the Psalms. This is why the Bible is so precious to Christians today. It is not a textbook of perfect conditions. It is a book showing how real people go through real struggles in life. Read some of David’s lamentations.
Psa 10:1 Why do You stand afar off, O Jehovah? Will You hide in times of trouble?
Psa 22:1 To the Chief Musician, on the deer of the dawn. A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why have You forsaken me, and are far from my deliverance, and from the words of my groaning?
Psa 43:2 For You are the God of my strength; why do You cast me off? Why do I go mourning under the affliction of the enemy?
God sometimes hides His face
While God is actually present with us even through our difficult times, He sometimes hides His face from us.
Isa 8:17 And I will wait on Jehovah, who hides His face from the house of Jacob; and I will look for Him.
Psa 44:24 Why do You hide Your face, and forget our affliction and distress?
Periods of God’s hiding is necessary for our spiritual development
Job 23:8-10 Behold, I go forward, but He is not there; and backward, but I cannot see Him; (9) on the left hand, where He works, but I cannot behold Him. He turns to the right, but I do not see Him. (10) But He knows the way that I take; when He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.
God hid His face from Job to test him and He will do the same with us. This period of testing is necessary for our spiritual development. Do we still trust in God even when we cannot feel His presence? Do we need everything to go right before we can declare that God is with us?