When God Goes Dark: “When God says No”

God, why are you ALLOWING this?.

God, am I going too make it THROUGH this?

In these seasons we experience a number of feelings:

1. We get MAD.

2. We’re tempted to LEAVE.

3. We COMPARE ourselves.

“Jesus Christ is the SAME yesterday, today and forever.” Hebrews 13:8

The presence of ADVERSITY does not equate to the ABSENCE of God.

The experiences of the Apostle Paul’s life and writings give us a TRUTH and a PROMISE.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

v.7 “To keep ME from becoming CONCEITED, because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given to me a THORN in my flesh, a messenger from SATAN to TORMENT me.”

v.8 “THREE times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.”

The PROBLEM with the idea of problem-free Christianity is that it’s NOT Christianity at all.

v.9 “But, He said to me, My GRACE is SUFFICIENT for you, for my POWER is made PERFECT in weakness. Therefore I will BOAST all the more GLADLY about my WEAKNESSES, so that CHRIST’S POWER may rest on me.”

“So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His MERCY and we will find GRACE to help us when we need it most.” Hebrews 4:16

v.10 “That is why for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions in difficulties. For when I am WEAK, then I am STRONG.”

Guidance for your conversations with Jesus when it feels like God has gone dark:

1. Your Heavenly Father absolutely cares about your CIRCUMSTANCES.

2. If God says ‘no’ that does not mean He does not CARE about you.

3. It’s in our trials and our WEAKNESS that Jesus is most clearly visible in our life.

4. Never forget, your Savior faced a SIMILAR SITUATION in His own life.

Jesus’ SUSTAINING GRACE in our lives always begins, not with my will, but THY will, be done.