Looking Unto Jesus Message Magazines Preparation Day Edition Devotional for Friday, May 16, 2014 I Feel Forsaken! “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, KJV 1900) Have you ever felt forsaken by God? Has the darkness of life’s circumstances ever overshadowed you to the point that you are not able to perceive God’s presence? There comes a time in everyone’s lives when we must face the conflict between fact and feeling. The fact is, that there are occasions when even persons of great faith are not able to feel that God is present in difficulty and we want to know why. Why did God allow my child to die? Why did my husband leave me for another woman? Why did my wife decide to pack up the kids and move to another city without me? Why do I feel like every time I take one-step forward, I end up two-steps back? Why to I feel so empty inside, despite my attempts to pray and read my Bible? Why do people constantly hold my criminal past against me when I have done the time? Why do I suffer, when I have done nothing wrong? Why? Why? Why? As Jesus faced the closing moments of His earthly life, weighed down beneath the burden of sin He had become for us, He shrank from the feeling of abandonment. The One who was in fact one with the Father, was grieved with the feeling that our sins had separated them forever. He is acquainted with your difficulties, friends! There is no pain or trial with which He cannot sympathize. Although He never sinned in the least particular, He carried our sins, grief, and sorrows to the bitter end. And with unrelenting faith, He pressed through the heart wrenching darkness that preceded His death, until the day He arose from the grave with all victory in His hands. Our Father says, “For the LORD has called you like a wife deserted and grieved in spirit, like a wife of youth when she is cast off, says your God. For a brief moment I deserted you, but with great compassion I will gather you. In overflowing anger for a moment I hid my face from you, but with everlasting love I will have compassion on you,” says the LORD, your Redeemer” (Isaiah 54:6–8, ESV). So, when the dark clouds of life overshadow you and you feel forsaken, recall the aforementioned promise. The fact is that our Father has compassion on us, and when we turn to Him in faith, “the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings. And you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture” (Malachi 4:2, NLT).--L. David Harris
Posted on: Fri, 16 May 2014 11:01:44 +0000