How are you? That is often the first question we ask when we meet someone or talk to them and under the present lockdown circumstances, the question is even more relevant than in the past.
Do you ever feel isolated, lonely, abandoned, ignored or even forgotten? Or fearful, anxious, insecure and uncertain about the future? These are common feelings that we all have from time to time and there are many examples in the Bible and throughout history of people who have felt just that. And some have thought that God had abandoned them and have even blamed Him for their difficult circumstances.
In the Bible we read about Jeremiah who was God’s prophet who spoke God’s word to the nation of Israel. He saw the great city of Jerusalem invaded, the temple destroyed and the people exiled into Babylon. Jeremiah saw the destruction and death all around him and was disconsolate, dejected, distressed and depressed. He knew that life as he had once known it was gone, maybe never to return.
I believe there are many people in our nation today who are suffering similarly as they follow the rules that our government has laid down on self-isolation and lockdown. There are also many people who do not understand what is happening to them and why they have to stay in their own rooms or homes and not mix with other people as they always have done. Perhaps you are one of those people, and haven’t even been able to see members of your family for many days now.
In the Bible, God says in Psalm 50: “Call upon Me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you.”
In his pain, Jeremiah called on the Lord and knew His comfort. He wrote in Lamentations 3:
“I remember my affliction and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind and
therefore I have hope: Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for His
compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.
The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him.”
We must remember that our Lord Jesus also knew what it was to be isolated and alone. As He was being crucified on the cross, He cried out “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
The reason that Jesus felt disconnected from God as He was dying was because He was carrying our sin and it is our sin, independence and rebellion that separates us from our Heavenly Father.
Of course, Jesus knew what was going to happen to Him, for that was the very reason He left the glory of heaven and came down to earth; to take our place and the punishment for our sin on the cross.
Nevertheless, when the time came, He suffered. And the wonderful thing about the Lord and His love for us is that because He suffered in the same way as us, and God the Father raised Him triumphantly from the grave, He is able to help and encourage us when we pass through similar temptations and times of difficulty and distress. We do not know the outcome, but the Lord God Almighty has said:
“Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you” … if we cry to Him for help.
If we are reaching out to the Lord and trusting Him for His help and salvation, we have a tremendous assurance that He is in control and He is with us. Are you calling on Him?
Ron Brickman