A GOD THAT HIDES HIMSELF -- Tomorrow:
"Truly, Thou art a God Who hidest Thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior" -- Isaiah 45:15
Hear a man of God reason when the light of the Lord is behind the clouds of circumstance, hidden from view. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him for the help of His countenance" (Psa 42:5). The same words are declared in verse eleven. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God" (Psa 42:11). Once again, this form of reasoning it uttered in the 43rd Psalm. "Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope in God: for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the health of my countenance, and my God" (Psa 43:5).
How blessed it is to be able to reason like that! Such thoughts reveal a tender heart that depends upon Divine sustenance. It perceives trouble as temporary, and eternal bliss as inevitable for the child of God. Thus the believer refuses to be overcome by trouble. He prays, he seeks, and even reasons with his own soul; that erratic part of our being that rises and falls in temporal climates. Such a person knows that God has not ceased working, even though His activity is not apparent. As Job said, "On the left hand, where He doth work, but I cannot behold Him: He hideth Himself on the right hand, that I cannot see Him" (Job 23:9).
But that is no cause for despair! This is no reason for the soul to be cast down. The problem is inferior perception, not Divine abandonment. Faith reasons with the soul, for it is superior to the intellect and the logical workings of the mind. Faith l knows what the mind is slow to grasp. That is why man believes "with the heart," not the mind (Rom 10:10). The heart thus tells the soul that God will yet yet break through the clouds. The light of His countenance will yet shine upon us. Trouble will pass, and peace "like a river" (Isa 66:12) will soon wash our troubles away from memory.
O child of God, learn to reason with your soul in times of trouble. Speak to it in view of the rich promises of God. Exhort it while your faith is looking to the future. Faith maintains its grasp of God when He is not apparent to the rest of our faculties. Such reasoning will make your trouble bearable, and cause the beacon of hope to come into view.
PRAYER POINT: Father, in the precious name of Jesus, I thank You for the power and perception of faith. I know I can, like Moses, endure as seeing Him who is invisible, and ask You for strength to do so.