When God Seems Distant...Sample

Psalm 22

Christ was temporarily abandoned by His Father so that we might know the never-failing presence of God in our lives.

Distance from God is unendurable. Jesus is the only one who has truly experienced hell on earth—complete separation from God the Father. But others have felt hellish oppression. David begins Psalm 22 with, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

In Psalm 22, David asks why God has abandoned him. “Thou art holy” is the answer to the prophetic “why” in David’s question. Because of His holiness, the Father turns His back on Christ at Calvary. As the Lamb of God bore the sin of the human race, He paid the penalty for sin: complete separation from God. The awesome holiness of God could not look upon Christ, as He became sin for us. He was cursed, alienated from, and abandoned by God, while He hung on the tree. Grasp this sobering reality of the cross: Jesus faced it all alone. He endured it without the Father’s comfort, help, and strength.

In the midst of David’s intense agony, the Holy Spirit uses his suffering to point to the suffering of Jesus Christ on the cross. David is given the holy privilege of identifying with the sufferings of Christ. The Apostle Paul recognized the glory in this privilege. He clearly desired to know the “fellowship of His [Christ's] sufferings.”

Remembering Christ’s agony in our time of affliction gives us a sense of what He went through for our sake, and it should stir us to seek His forgiveness and deliverance. Christ’s sufferings comfort us because they demonstrate God's extraordinary love for us. Suffering offers us an unparalleled opportunity to reveal the presence and power of Jesus Christ in our lives.

• There is a difference between union and communion. While we are always united in Christ, our communion can feel like it is going up and down with the ocean tides. Are you at low tide? Medium tide?
• Jesus is a man of suffering and well acquainted with grief. Has thinking about “identifying with the sufferings of Christ” changed your understanding of pain? If so, how?
• In your loneliest moments, are there practices that have helped you be more attuned to the Holy Spirit?