Job 23:1-3; 16-17
Faced with yet another life-threatening crisis in our small missionary community in Nigeria, I poured out my grief and disillusionment as I wrote in my journal, “What do you do when you have prayed and prayed and it doesn’t seem to make a bit of difference?”
There are times when prayer flows naturally and God seems so close. But on many other occasions prayer seems like a monologue. God feels distant and doesn’t seem to hear. George Buttrick described it as “beating on heaven’s door with bruised knuckles in the dark.” We feel like we are praying in the dark.
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We feel Lonely. We feel we are the only person who has ever known this kind of pain or grief. People try to offer kind words but they really cannot understand our darkness.
We feel Abandoned. God seems to have left us or seems indifferent to what is happening. The Psalmist exclaimed in 10:1 “Why, O Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself?” Elsewhere he cried out, “How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?” (13:1).
We feel Overwhelmed by Crisis. Nothing makes any sense. We feel like victims in a cruel cosmic game, discouraged and helpless. We echo the words of Jesus in Gethsemane: “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38).
Where do we turn and find comfort as well as the energy to keep on praying when the darkness seems so thick and our efforts appear fruitless? Three valuable truths can bring comfort and encouragement.
I recall a hospital visit to a young woman undergoing chemotherapy for abdominal cancer. Ten years earlier she had beaten brain cancer but now, once again, she was battling for her life. She pointed to her Bible and asked, “What can you say to me at a time like this?” I knew that a trite reply about God’s providence would sound empty and uncaring. So, I said, “I don’t have easy words of comfort. You can read through the Bible and you won’t find answers to this absurdity you are going through. But you will find your questions in that book. Others have walked a similar path. You are not alone. You are in godly company.”