When you face difficulties and wonder where God is, remember the teacher is always quiet during a test. It has happened to many of us – we’ve prayed, fasted, pleaded, wept, and immersed ourselves in the Word and yet received no response from the Lord, no acknowledgement of our despair. Seemingly, we’ve done all the right spiritual things to no avail.
The words of King David in Psalm 22:1-2 probably sums up the way we feel sometime. He said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from my cries of anguish? My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, but I find no rest.” The word anguish is also interpreted as “roaring” and implies loud complaint. This should encourage us to not feel guilty in conveying our own torment and frustration to our heavenly Father; after all, David was a man after God’s own heart. He deeply loved God but still experienced such low points in his life that he felt deserted by Him; however, he had no reservations about expressing just how he felt to the Lord.
And consider Habakkuk in the Old Testament. In Habakkuk 1:2, he complained, “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence’ but you do not save?”
Finally, John the Baptist, whom Jesus himself called the “greatest man ever born of women” (Matthew 11:11) became so disheartened in prison that he even questioned whether Jesus was the sent one or if they should consider somebody else! In Matthew 11:3, he sent this question to Jesus: “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”
These are only three examples of great men of God who became frustrated in situations of anguish. We learn from them that we can be upfront with the Lord about our feelings and don’t have to feel that we have sinned in moments of despair. We also learn from them that their downcast attitudes were temporary and through the faith that was entrenched within them, they would come back to their spiritual senses and an even deeper faith and trust in the Lord.
Following those moments, it is what we do with the emotions that is important. Perhaps, the “Teacher-God” desires to see how much we’ve already learned and how we put that knowledge into action. The Teacher loves us and cares about us, but He wants us to grow so He stands back quietly and observes our faith in action. He wants to see how we handle the tests of life. In the cases of the three men above, you might say, they graduated to a higher level.
Let’s be encouraged that we can be open and candid with our heavenly Father as we learn more of His ways and put them into practice. As we go through this journey, keep in mind that we don’t pass a test, we may experience a similar kind of test again and again. Have you mastered forgiving the unforgivable or loving the unlovable? How about showing compassion for those who need comfort remaining faithful in the face of financial adversity? These are only a few of the many tests that we may be faced with that can strengthen and grow us in our Christian journey. So, when are the tests over; when do we graduate? The answer is: In this life, we don’t; we keep pressing forward going from glory to glory, learning, growing, and increasing in the ways of the Lord.
Regardless of our test, however, we have a major advantage in passing it because it’s an open book test!