{"id":2255,"date":"2015-08-06T17:02:56","date_gmt":"2015-08-06T23:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=2255"},"modified":"2015-08-06T17:02:56","modified_gmt":"2015-08-06T23:02:56","slug":"when-god-is-distant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/?p=2255","title":{"rendered":"When God is Distant"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today was a good workout day for me. After a morning walk with the dog, I rode my bike to the fitness center for a workout. After lunch and some rest I headed to the swimming pool a good workout in the water. After some weeks of illness and feeling plateaued in my recovery, I believe that I can see some signs of gaining strength and greater stability. Perhaps the day of “full recovery”<\/em> is getting closer!<\/p>\n

BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY…<\/strong> “At night I remember my songs.<\/span> I think and I ask myself:<\/span><\/span> \u201cWill the Lord reject us forever?<\/span>\u00a0 <\/span>Will he never be kind to us again?<\/span><\/span> Is his love gone forever?<\/span> Has he stopped speaking for all time?<\/span><\/span> Has God forgotten mercy?<\/span><\/em> Is he too angry to pity us?\u201d<\/em>\u00a0 Psalm 77:6-9<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The reality of life is that when we are facing difficult times, times of challenge and days of ongoing agony, it is easy to feel that God is distant…or worse that we have been abandoned.<\/p>\n

While our faith and trust in God is a key to dealing with difficulties and discouragement, it can also be the source of our discouragement. As the psalmist begins, he reflects on days of joy, days of singing, days when the Lord undoubtedly seemed close. Now the Lord seems far away.<\/p>\n

The thoughts of the psalmist have echoed in the minds of people down through the ages. “Lord am I rejected? Am I still loved? Are you angry? Where is your mercy? Where is your voice of comfort and assurance?<\/em><\/p>\n

The reality is that our faith doesn’t spare us from such times of doubt and questioning. We have seen and heard what God has done in the past and want to believe that He always does the same thing, in the same way at the same time. But He doesn’t! The principles are constant, but they are formulas.<\/p>\n

Psalm 77 seems like two different Psalms, because we find a change, a pivot point that begins in verse 11.<\/p>\n

“I remember what the Lord<\/span> did;<\/span> I remember the miracles you did long ago.<\/span><\/span> I think about all the things you did<\/span><\/em> and consider your deeds.”<\/em> (Psa. 77:11,12)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The psalmist moves from consternation to contemplation. He changes the down spiral of his emotion in what we would call today a “Stop! Think!”<\/em> strategy. Instead of staying in the rut of what God is not doing,\u00a0 he begins to reflect on what the Lord has done in His faithfulness.<\/p>\n

That Psalm ends with a reflection and recitation of how the Lord lead and provided for His people. How He divinely provided and how He used human leadership. But before the psalmist recites the details of God’s faithfulness, he provides for us a good summary of what we need to focus on…<\/p>\n

“God, your ways are holy.<\/span> No god is as great as our God.<\/span><\/span> You are the God who does miracles;<\/span> you have shown people your power.<\/span><\/span><\/em> By your power you have saved your people….”<\/em> (Psa. 77:13-15)
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

We find here an affirmation of God’s greatness, His miracles, His power that has saved and will save His people. It seems that psalmist is concluding that regardless of how I feel, this is what I know and after all…. “where could I go but to the the Lord?” <\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was a good workout day for me. After a morning walk with the dog, I rode my bike to the fitness center for a workout. After lunch and some rest I headed to the swimming pool a good workout in the water. After some weeks of illness and feeling plateaued in my recovery, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2256,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2255\/revisions\/2256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kensummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}