NOVEMBER 27
“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning” - Psalm 22:1
I think there are times when we identify with David and his heartfelt cry. We cry out....and God seems silent and far away. The key word here is seems. We feel that because God doesn't 'seem' to be answering us, that we have been abandoned. Conversely, our faith insists He would never do any such thing – He told us, “The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be dismayed” - Deuteronomy 31:8.
The role of how we are feeling at any given time, and our faith can be difficult. A.W. Tozer puts it this way. He describes feelings as, “The play of emotion over the will, a kind of musical accompaniment to the business of living; and while it is indeed most enjoyable to have a band play as we march....it is by no means indispensable. We can walk and work without music, and if we have true faith we can walk without God without feeling.” 
God, in the “seemed” silence, hasn't forsaken us. He is teaching us to have a strong, true faith – a faith that's unswayed by emotion and the unreliability of feelings....angry, frustrated, let-down....ready to quit!
Jan Dravecky, wife of Dave Dravecky (our subject last weekend) following the trauma of Dave's cancer diagnosis, and subsequent amputation of his left arm, rode the roller-coaster of the unreliability of feelings, writes, “At times I have to walk with Him (God) without the pleasure of music so that my faith will deepen. And when the music returns, it's melody sounds all the more sweet.”
If, right now, you are facing tough times, put your hand into our Saviours hand....hold tight to your faith....He will see you through.
The song today is sung by Cathedral Quartet - “He Saw What I Could Be.”
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Housekeeping details for you
The point of this short blog will become clear if you decide to use this reading in the way we intend it. Netherfield Seventh-day Adventist Church believes in healthy churches. You can see what that means if you head to the relevant Healthy Churches page of the website. We also want other churches to be healthy. That means you can join in our campaign to create healthy churches, with healthy people serving the people in those churches.
A healthy church is one where Jesus comes first. A healthy church is one where the people work together to put Jesus first. One thing we are doing is to join people together to spread that news. I would like you to look at our prayer partners page. This will explain how we want you to use this short devotional. Very basically we want you to find a like-minded Christian friend who you will join with to : choose to pray together every day, decide together on a way to serve other people together, to help them grow as Christians - and to invite the Holy Spirit into your life every day. This blog that you will receive every day simply gives a common spiritual purpose. If you are a newcomer and want to join the blog with this object in mind click here
