There are times in our lives when God feels very close, and then there are times when we wonder where He is and why He seems so quiet. I think most of us who have walked with the Lord for any length of time know what that feels like. We pray about something, sometimes for a very long time, and nothing seems to change. We ask God for direction and still don’t know what to do. We may even wonder if He hears us at all.
I have certainly felt that way at different times in my life. I learned when I was very young to turn to God when I felt lonely. There were things happening around me that I didn’t understand and things I certainly didn’t know how to fix. As a little girl, I just knew that I needed somewhere to go with all of it, and I found that place in my relationship with the Lord. I felt special to Him during a time when I often didn’t feel that way with other people. Looking back now, I believe learning to run to God during those early years helped carry me through many of the things that came later in my life.
That doesn’t mean I always stayed close to God or understood what He was doing. I didn’t. There were plenty of times when I questioned Him. There were situations I wanted Him to change that didn’t change, at least not when I wanted them to. There were prayers that seemed unanswered and circumstances that made absolutely no sense to me at the time. Yet now that I can look back over many years, I see something I couldn’t always see while I was living through those moments. God was still there.
I think sometimes we confuse not being able to see what God is doing with God not doing anything. Those are two very different things. When we are right in the middle of a difficult situation, all we can see is what is happening today. We don’t know what tomorrow looks like, and we certainly don’t know how God may use something years from now. I know there were times in my life when I couldn’t imagine anything good coming from what I was walking through.
I also want to make something very clear. I don’t believe God caused the painful things that happened in my life. People make choices, and those choices affect other people. I have lived with the consequences of other people’s choices, just as people in my life have experienced the consequences of mine. But even in those difficult places, God remained faithful. I can look back now and see His provision and His protection in ways I didn’t recognize at the time.
One Scripture that has brought me comfort many times comes from Hebrews 13:5: “I will never leave you, nor forsake you.” I love that promise because God doesn’t promise that life will always go the way we want it to go. He promises that He won’t leave us while we walk through it.
Maybe that is where you find yourself today. You’ve prayed and nothing seems to change. You’re waiting for an answer that hasn’t come yet. Perhaps you’ve asked God the same question so many times that you don’t even know what else to say. I understand that place. I also know how easy it becomes to focus so much on the thing in front of us that we forget everything God has already brought us through.
Sometimes we need to look back.
Think about the times in your own life when you didn’t know how things were going to work out. Maybe there was a season you thought would never end, a loss you didn’t know how you were going to get through, or a time when you simply needed enough strength to make it through another day. Where was God in those moments? You may recognize things now that you couldn’t see then.
I can look back from the time I was a young girl, through my teenage years and adulthood, and now as a grandmother, and see God’s faithfulness woven throughout my life. There were many difficult years and many times when I felt alone. I certainly didn’t handle everything perfectly, and there were times when I wasn’t walking as closely with the Lord as I wanted to. Still, He remained faithful.
Maybe you don’t need to figure everything out today. Maybe you don’t need to know how the story ends yet. Perhaps today you simply remember what God has already brought you through and trust Him with the part you cannot see.
That is something I have learned through it all. I may not always understand what God is doing while I am walking through something, but when I look back, I see His faithfulness again and again.
So let me leave you with a question I hope you will take some time to think about:
When you look back over your own life, where do you see God’s faithfulness now that you couldn’t see then?
Sometimes remembering where He met us yesterday gives us the faith to keep walking with Him today.
#FaithAndEncouragement #GodIsFaithful #TrustGod #ChristianEncouragement #FaithJourney #HopeInGod #GodsFaithfulness #WalkingWithGod #ChristianWomen #HealingJourney #HopeForTheJourney #FromTraumaToTriumph #MichelleSimpson
Your journey doesn't end here.
If something in this article spoke to you, I hope you'll keep exploring. I've gathered free tools, thoughtful guides, and trusted education to support emotional, spiritual, and whole-body wellness—resources you may return to whenever you need a little encouragement or a practical next step.
Explore Free ResourcesYou are not alone.
0 Comments