The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.
—Psalm 37:23
Scripture:
In the aftermath of a natural disaster, national or local tragedy, or personal dark night of the soul, these questions often arise: Where was God when this happened? Why does He seem absent?
The problem lies not with God Himself. He is, after all, omnipresent—He exists everywhere, all the time. Nothing will ever change that. The problem lies with our perception of Him—or, more specifically, our expectations of Him. When the Lord isn’t as predictable or as obvious as we want Him to be, we assume the worst.
The Gospel of Luke gives us a snapshot of this phenomenon. After Jesus’ crucifixion, two of His followers were walking the road to Emmaus. Both were devastated because the One to whom they had given their lives was gone, from all earthly appearances. God in human form was absent.
Until He joined them on their journey.
The two followers didn’t recognize Jesus at first. Here’s a loose paraphrase of the encounter.
Jesus asked, “Guys, why the long faces? What’s the problem?”
The two men were stunned by the question. “You must be the only person in Jerusalem who hasn’t heard about all the things that have happened there the last few days,” they replied.
“What things?”
They explained, “The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death and crucified Him. But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened” (Luke 24:19–21 NKJV).
Jesus said, “You foolish people! You find it so hard to believe all that the prophets wrote in the Scriptures. Wasn’t it clearly predicted that the Messiah would have to suffer all these things before entering his glory?” (Luke 24:25–26 NLT). He led the followers “through the writings of Moses and all the prophets, explaining from all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27 NLT).
Shortly thereafter, the two followers recognized Jesus (see Luke 24:30–31).
The reality for believers is that there are times when we sense the presence of the Lord. Then there are times when we don’t feel God’s presence and don’t see Him at work. We wonder whether God has abandoned us. The answer is: Absolutely not. He never has and never will. He said, “I will never fail you. I will never abandon you” (Hebrews 13:5 NLT).
The Bible says, “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives” (Psalm 37:23 NLT).
There are times in life when God seems absent, but He never is. God is always at work in the life of the believer, every hour of every day.
Reflection question: What can you do when God feels absent in your life? Discuss this with believers like you on Harvest Discipleship!
