<\/p>\n
Wednesday evening was one of those days. You know the kind I\u2019m referring to, right? Where everything (and I mean everything) seems to go wrong from sunrise to sunset? First, it was a spoiled breakfast. Then, my dog seemed to take a century to go to the bathroom despite negative wind chills and rapidly falling snow. By the afternoon, I\u2019d extinguished 12 work fires, 52 text messages, and 4 emotional breakdowns. That evening, I crumbled under the weight of my circumstances. How long, O Lord? my soul cried out. Have you been here, too?<\/p>\n
After sending a quick text to my husband that \u201che needed to get home ASAP so I could have a breakdown,\u201d I crawled into the shower and wept. As I did, the words of Psalm 13 seemed to bubble out of my chest:<\/p>\n
\u201cHow long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, \u201cI have overcome him,\u201d and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord\u2019s praise, for he has been good to me\u201d (NIV).\u00a0<\/p>\n
Looking back on that Wednesday, it was a terribly awful, horrible, not good day. But it was nothing compared to the suffering David experienced in the Psalms. I don\u2019t say this to invalidate you or my experiences, but to give some perspective.\u00a0<\/p>\n
David knew what it was like to live a life that didn\u2019t always feel good. He had enemies, faced a giant, and committed adultery. Yet the Scriptures tell us he was a man after God\u2019s own heart. Why? Because David knew how to be honest with God in pain, while still choosing to trust. And he learned to see that God\u2019s goodness remains, even when life feels anything but good.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Sometimes, life is hard because we make it hard. We try to live outside the way God intended for us to live. But at other times, life is hard because we live in a broken, fallen world. David experienced both of these scenarios.<\/p>\n
When we\u2019re told \u201c God is good\u201d amidst our suffering, there\u2019s tension, right? That comment can feel like a slap in the face to our wounds. Perhaps our current reality is so painful, confusing, or unfair that it seems unrealistic to say, \u201cGod is good.\u201d Here\u2019s the truth: Psalm 13 is a model of faith that doesn\u2019t deny suffering but acknowledges who God is amid it. And that key distinction makes all the difference. Because we aren\u2019t operating out of a place of ignorance, but reality. If you want to learn to pray this way, here are 3 steps to follow.<\/p>\n
1. Pray Honestly-<\/strong> \u201cHow long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me?\u201d (Psalm 13:1-2, NIV). David begins this Psalm by asking God the same question four times: \u201cHow long?\u201d When we\u2019re suffering, we tend to ask the same question. How long will this last? How long until the pain stops? How long until I hear your voice? Even David felt forgotten, ignored, and overwhelmed. But God allows honest questions, not polished prayers. He even desires them because He wants an honest and truthful relationship with you, no matter what you\u2019re feeling.\u00a0<\/p>\n 2. Pray Desperately-<\/strong> In verses 3-4, David says these words: \u201cLook on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, \u201cI have overcome him,\u201d and my foes will rejoice when I fall\u201d (NIV). David is desperate. He\u2019s pleading with the Lord, asking God to look upon him and answer him. From time to time, all of us pray desperate prayers. But what I love about David\u2019s prayers here is that he doesn\u2019t minimize the stakes. These troubles feel like life or death to him. And in many cases, they were. When we\u2019re feeling like we\u2019re in these places, our faith can speak boldly because that relationship with Jesus already exists. He doesn\u2019t expect us to come pretty and polished, but as we are even when it\u2019s desperate for Him.\u00a0<\/p>\n 3. Pray Trusting –<\/strong> As David concludes Psalm 13, verses 5 and 6 remind us that while nothing external may have changed (yet), we can choose to remember God\u2019s unfailing love and past goodness. This isn\u2019t a natural or human response. But even when David\u2019s life hasn\u2019t been good, he can still declare that God has been good. And so can we. \u201cBut I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord\u2019s praise, for he has been good to me\u201d (Psalm 13:5-6, NIV).\u00a0<\/p>\n It\u2019s a hard pill to swallow, but no matter what we\u2019re going through on this side of Heaven, we must remember that our circumstances don\u2019t define God\u2019s goodness. Bad seasons don\u2019t cancel God\u2019s character; they\u2019re just part of life in a fallen world. Silence isn\u2019t abandonment, but rather a period of time to ponder what God is doing even here. Because God\u2019s goodness is steady even when our lives and emotions are not, and that\u2019s always something to be thankful for.\u00a0<\/p>\n If you\u2019re struggling to trust that God is good despite difficult circumstances, I want you to know that you\u2019re allowed to lament and trust. You\u2019re allowed to tell God you\u2019re frustrated, upset, and confused by a life that doesn\u2019t always make sense. But don\u2019t stay here. Speak to your soul that faith isn\u2019t pretending, but choosing to hope in God honestly, anyway. And remember that past goodness can and always should fuel present hope. Because our God was good and faithful then, and He\u2019s still good and faithful now.\u00a0<\/p>\n For more practice wrestling with these emotions and learning to process them with the Lord, try reflecting on these three practical questions:\u00a0<\/p>\n 1. What \u201cHow long?\u201d questions am I carrying? Am I sharing them honestly with God?<\/p>\n 2. Where have I seen God\u2019s goodness in the past? What does that tell me about my present?<\/p>\n 3. How can I trust God\u2019s character even if this season doesn\u2019t feel good?<\/p>\n Prayer<\/strong><\/p>\n Dear Jesus, through it all, you\u2019ve been good to us. Even though life can be painful, you are still faithful. In times of distress and pain, help us to look to Psalm 13. Remind us that, like David, we can bring our heartache to you. Help us to hold onto the hope of who you are and to remember that your goodness doesn\u2019t deny pain, but it redeems it. You can help us process every hurt we encounter as we remember who you are amidst it. We love, praise, and thank you, Jesus. Amen.<\/p>\n Photo credit: \u00a9GettyImages\/PhotoAlto\/EricAudras<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n Amber Ginter<\/strong> is a teacher-turned-author who loves Jesus, her husband Ben, and granola. Growing up Amber looked for faith and mental health resources and found none. Today, she offers hope for young Christians struggling with mental illness that goes beyond simply reading your Bible and praying more. Because you can love Jesus and still suffer from anxiety. You can download her top faith and mental health resources for\u00a0free to help navigate books, podcasts, videos, and influencers from a faith lens perspective. Visit her website at\u00a0amberginter.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Wednesday evening was one of those days. You know the kind I\u2019m referring to, right? Where everything (and I mean everything) seems to go wrong from sunrise to sunset? First, it was a spoiled breakfast. Then, my dog seemed to take a century to go to the bathroom despite negative wind chills and rapidly falling<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[182,4547,331,911],"class_list":["post-17261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-christian-living","tag-god","tag-hurts","tag-life","tag-trusting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Our Circumstances don\u2019t define God\u2019s Goodness<\/strong><\/h2>\n