Pray Like Jesus In Tough TimesSample

We felt a sense of abandonment with those guilty verdicts. After all, right is supposed to prevail but it had not. We felt God had not answered our prayers, and we were confused. But God’s people rallied around us. For the sentencing, the courtroom was filled with our family and friends, and many provided comfort in all manner of ways for weeks, including a massive amount of food, pages and pages of letters to the editor in our local newspaper, and handwritten Scripture promises. While we initially felt abandoned, we were not.

Jesus felt abandoned, too. His most human statement may have been his second prayer from the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Forsaken means forgotten or abandoned. Seemingly, the Father had turned his head away from his Son in Jesus' most desperate moment. 

Perhaps you have felt forsaken, too. Forgotten. Abandoned. But remember this: When a newborn child is abandoned at a doorstep, that act of abandonment can actually be the answer to someone else’s prayers: adoption. A childless couple could find their greatest joy realized because a child had been abandoned. 

This was what the Father was doing. The abandonment of Jesus on that cross led to your adoption as the Father’s son or daughter. Always cling to the knowledge that you are adopted and loved because of the great gift of your Savior.