When God is Gone

When was the last time you sobbed?  I mean heartbroken, gut-wrenching sobs - the kind that erupt from a crushed and broken heart.

Maybe someone close to you drove a knife into your heart and then walked away.

Perhaps you had been betrayed.

Or abandoned.

Or forsaken.

Or lied to.

Maybe someone you loved had died, and all your dreams died with them.

You were left hopeless.

Alone.

Afraid.

Mary felt that way. As she walked to the tomb early that Sunday morning, her heart ached for what might have been. All the dreams. All the promises. All the hopes. Gone.

How could things have gone so wrong?

By the time she reached her destination, grief and sorrow overwhelmed her, and she sobbed. Gut-wrenching, heartbroken sobs. 

The kindly gardener's words did little to soothe her grief, "Woman, why are you weeping?" 

Forming an answer required her to acknowledge the reason.

"God is gone, and I don't know where to find Him."

Has sorrow ever made you feel this way?

When the resurrected Christ encountered a heartbroken Mary outside the tomb that first Easter morning, he spoke one word that changed Mary's life forever. It righted her world. It brought comfort and hope. It eased her sorrow and soothed her pain.

"Mary."

If you, like Mary, are heartbroken, close your eyes and open your heart.  Picture the Savior stepping into your grief and your pain and calling you by name.  He knows you.  He loves you.  He IS alive in your life.

Allow the hope of that first Resurrection Day to push everything else out of your heart.

REJOICE!

"He is not here!  He is risen, just as He said!"

"You have turned for me my mourning into dancing; You have put off my sackcloth and clothed me with gladness." (Ps 30:11)

"And if Christ is not risen, then our preaching is empty and your faith is also empty."  (1 Cor. 15:14)

You want to connect with God, but in the craziness of life, it’s just not happening. You want practical, biblical answers to situations you face every day, but you don’t have hours to pore over Scripture.

You need a resource that answers the questions you’re afraid to ask out loud. Questions like:

• Is my situation hopeless?
• If God already knows what he’s going to do, why bother to pray? 
• Why have you allowed this to happen to me? 
• No one appreciates what I do. Why shouldn’t I quit? 

Each devotion begins with a Facetime question and ends with a biblical answer wrapped in a modern day parable. Like a spiritual power bar, Hungry for God … Starving for Time is packed with enough scriptural nutrition to get you through the day. Wherever you are—in break rooms, carpool lines, or wherever you can snatch five minutes of quiet reflection—Hungry for God … Starving for Time, 5-Minute Devotions for Busy Women is for you.

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What Makes You Cry?

What makes you cry?

For me, it's sad animal stories.

I never realized how sensitive I was until my eldest daughter was in fourth grade. Her elementary reading list began to include read aloud books such as Old Yeller, Where the Red Fern Grows, and Sounder. 

Being the conscientious homeschooling mother that I was, I was committed to read every book on the reading list. When I reached the point in Old Yeller where Travis shouts to his mother in a voice thick with tears, "We can't just shoot Old Yeller like he was nothin'," I lost it. I couldn't read any longer. My vision was blurred, my nose was running, and I had to stop to compose myself every third word.

I took to my bed for the rest of the afternoon and vowed never again to read another sad animal tale. If my daughters, now both graduated from homeschool high school, have a gap in their education, this is it -- they are poorly versed in sad animal stories.

Over the years, by watching me react, listening to me speak, and hearing my heart for helpless loyal animals, my girls have acquired a similar sensitivity to animal cruelty. They even watch out for me. "Mom, you can't watch that movie; The dog dies," they'll warn me.

"It was a good book," they'll say, "but the author didn't have to kill off the family pet."

One time my daughter even suggested I take an alternate route out of the neighborhood because of a roadside tragedy involving a furry creature.

They share my heart because they have watched me react and learned what I value.

Do you know what makes Jesus cry?

We read about it in John 11:35 and Luke 19:41.

In Luke 11:35, the story of the death and resurrection of Lazarus, Jesus witnesses the heartbroken tears of his dearest friends Mary and Martha at the tomb of their brother Lazarus. Knowing that He would soon raise Lazarus from the dead, Jesus did not weep in sadness over his friend's death. Instead, he wept as he watched Mary, Martha, and their friends and relatives experience the intense sorrow and pain that comes from losing a loved one.

Jesus wept because He, as the Creator of the world, never intended for mankind to feel the sorrow of death. God created humanity to live forever, but sin entered man's heart and brought with it physical and spiritual death.

Sin and death make Jesus cry.

Luke 19:41 demonstrates what else makes Jesus cry. As He gazed over Jerusalem before his long walk to the cross, He lamented, "If you, even you, had only known on this day what would bring you peace--but now it is hidden from your eyes."

Jesus wept for those who would reject Him and spend eternity separated from God.

The lost make Jesus cry.

Like my children have learned to value the things I value and weep over the things for which I weep, I must ask myself, do I weep over what my heavenly Father values? Do I cry over the things that make Jesus cry?

I will as I spend time with Him, listen to His voice, and learn to value the things He values. I will learn to weep when I learn to share His love for the lost, the sinful, and the dying.

Oh, may I learn to weep like Jesus weeps.







You want to connect with God, but in the craziness of life, it’s just not happening. You want practical, biblical answers to situations you face every day, but you don’t have hours to pore over Scripture.

You need a resource that answers the questions you’re afraid to ask out loud. Questions like:

• Is my situation hopeless?
• If God already knows what he’s going to do, why bother to pray? 
• Why have you allowed this to happen to me? 
• No one appreciates what I do. Why shouldn’t I quit? 

Each devotion begins with a Facetime question and ends with a biblical answer wrapped in a modern day parable. Like a spiritual power bar, Hungry for God … Starving for Time is packed with enough scriptural nutrition to get you through the day. Wherever you are—in break rooms, carpool lines, or wherever you can snatch five minutes of quiet reflection—Hungry for God … Starving for Time, 5-Minute Devotions for Busy Women is for you.

If you enjoyed this post, why not subscribe? I'll send you twice-weekly 5-minute devotions to help nourish your soul. 
Because women need to connect with God in the craziness of life. 

Enter your email address and VALIDATE the Feedburner email sent to your inbox.



Delivered by FeedBurner

Hungry for God is on Facebook! Will you take a moment and LIKE my page? CLICK HERE to help HFG share 5-minute devotions.
 

 

 

Dr. B's Red Pajamas

I never thought I'd see him again, but there he was, rolling through our office doorway, dressed in his classic tweed blazer, but with a twist -- bright red pajama bottoms.

Dr. B. always requested me as his dental hygienist.  Because of our regular appointments, I knew quite well the physical challenges he had experienced.  A tall man, always nicely groomed with a shock of white hair, Dr. B. is an education specialist at a local university. He had his first hip replacement some twelve years ago. Afterward, he walked with a cane and a limp. 

Three years after surgery, his hip was recalled. This meant he had to suffer another surgery, along with extensive rehabilitation.  Three years after his second surgery, his hip failed again. Now he is permanently confined to a wheel chair. A taxi driver delivers him to all of his appointments.

Six months ago, he was so weak and sick when he arrived at our office that he couldn't get out of the taxi. Our doctor met him at the car and directed him straight to the emergency room.  He spent four months in the hospital. We never expected him to be released.

But there he sat, dapper as usual, his dignified charm unaffected by his less than formal pajama pants. I had to hug him. 

"You don't know what I went through these past months," he said.

"I heard," I replied, "and I am really glad to see you."

While I was thinking of the physical trial he had been through, there was another trial weighing heavily on his heart.

"My oldest brother died three months ago," he said, eyes filling up with tears, "and my youngest brother died a few weeks ago. I couldn't attend either funeral. My son and his wife went in my place."

My heart hurt for this man who had suffered so much.  While up to this point I had been unable to offer him anything but sympathy concerning his physical trials, I now had a place to connect.

"While my family was in Mexico on a mission trip," I told him, "my sister-in-law died suddenly.  We were unable to make it back for her funeral. Dear friends stood in our places.  It brings a lot of comfort, doesn't it, knowing that someone is there on your behalf?"

"Yes it does,"  he replied thoughtfully.

Although my words changed nothing about Dr. B's situation, I know they brought a measure of comfort to his tender heart. There is something about the fellowship of suffering that bonds people together.  The apostle Paul talked about the mysterious power of shared pain in Second Corinthians 1:4-5, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any trouble, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God."

When we reach out to people in the name of Jesus and allow them to share both our pain and our consolation, in a small way, we redeem our suffering.  We choose, as Joni Erickson Tada often says, not to waste the pain.

If you have experienced a painful time in your life, maybe a job loss, a death, a broken marriage, a sickness, or a wayward child, and God has brought you through, be ready to offer words of hope and comfort to those around you. Be ready, as Peter admonished us, "to give a reason for the hope that lies within you" (1 Peter 3:15).

Be comforted, also, that suffering surrendered to Christ and offered up for his use is not in vain.  Instead of despairing, we can "rejoice, inasmuch as you are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when His glory shall be revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:13).

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Nothing Wasted

I was touring a small textile manufacturing business in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, with a friend from college.   Kim worked there as a supervisor. Her job was to oversee a small shift of seamstresses who spent their days making handcrafted Pennsylvania Dutch items.

As I marveled at the rows of ladies sewing busily at their machines, I noticed an elderly woman dressed in Amish garb moving quietly among the sewing machines. While I watched, she traveled from one work station to the next with a broom and a dustpan, sweeping up the small scraps of fabric the ladies had discarded as they cut out their patterns.  Intrigued, I asked my friend about her.

“Oh, she’s been doing that for years,” she answered.  “She came in one day and asked me what we did with the leftover scraps of fabric.  When I told her we threw them away, she asked if she could have them.”

“What does she do with a bunch of useless scraps?” I asked.

“Believe it or not,” my friend replied, “she uses them to make quilts.”  She led the way to an office area, and there on the wall hung an intricately designed Amish quilt.  “Who would have thought,” I marveled, “that something so beautiful could come from leftovers you threw away?”

Ruth Myers, in her book Thirty-one Days of Praise, says to the Lord, “With You, nothing is accidental, nothing is incidental, and no experience is wasted . . . every trial that You allow to happen is a platform on which You reveal Yourself, showing Your love and power, both to me and to others looking on.”  

What a comfort to know that God uses the “leftovers” of our lives.  All the mistakes, all the failures, all the hurts and all the pain that we would rather throw away, are raw materials in His hands.  Like the little Amish lady, God moves quietly among the events of our lives gathering up the pieces, fully able to link them together into a beautiful tapestry of grace. 

“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, who are the called according to His purpose.”  (Romans 8:28)

Today, will you join Ruth Myers and me in saying to the Lord, “I praise you for Your sovereignty over the broad events of my life and over the details?”  Let’s trust Him together to make something beautiful out of the events of our lives that we would rather throw away.