Recently, I was counseling someone who was feeling very estranged from God. They felt completely alone and distant – as though God were there, but just wouldn’t act on their behalf.
In Psalm 13, David recounts a similar experience.
O LORD, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way? How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand? Turn and answer me, O LORD my God!
I’ve noticed a common thread when counseling believers with this issue – they miss the big target. The simplest things – prayer, reading their Bible, etc. – are the things that they neglect in search of the bigger fix; whether that be reading books, listening to podcasted sermons, etc.
And the tragedy, the difficulty in that scenario, is that the last thing they’re willing to do is go back to the basics. “That can’t be it. There has to be something else.”
But it is in their prayer time, and in their reading of Scripture, that they begin to discover a new hope. Again, in Psalm 13, David saw the hope.
But I trust in your unfailing love. I will rejoice because you have rescued me. I will sing to the LORD because he has been so good to me.
What simple thing do you neglect? Will you drop the charade and get back to it?
