Have you ever felt as if you were alone on a deserted island, with no one around?’ Have you ever felt as though God had forsaken you?” There was times, Jim & I felt so alone, no one cared & God had forsaken us. We called out to God but it seemed He wasn’t there. Well, if you are feeling alone & forsaken, you are not. In fact, many Christians feel the same way right now, even Jesus felt that way too. In Matthew 27:46, Jesus had reached His lowest point in His life. He asked His Father if He had forsaken Him. Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lama sa bach than ru?” This means “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken Me?”
During these times, when you feel alone, the truth is we are not. God is always with us, to help you, if we will let Him. “Be strong & of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the Lord, your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you.“ (Deuteronomy 31:6). During our difficult times, we experienced many negative emotions, such as hurt, betrayal, anxiety, depression, bitterness, hopelessness & dissatisfaction.
FEELING OF HURT & BETRAYAL: Have you ever had a person close to you do or say something to hurt you? Betrayal is a hurt that comes in many forms- a broken promise, a confidence violated, a boundary crossed or a lie exposed. Being hurt by anyone is painful & sometimes this kind of hurt is hard to get over. When someone we love & trust hurts us, the pain seems more intense because it takes us by surprise. We are hurt when we least expect it by those whom we rely on to be at our side. Betrayal signifies loss-loss of safety, loss of predictability & maybe even loss of a relationship. There comes a time in our lives, when we need to forgive the one who hurt & betrayed us.
FEELING OF ANXIOUSNESS: This means we are not trusting God to take care of us. No matter what problems we have in our lives, Jesus has overcome them. In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of cheer I (Jesus) have over the world” (John 16:33). God says we should not be anxiousness about anything because He will take care of it all. When we are anxious, it means we are not trusting God to take care of us. He will prove His faithfulness if we run to Him. “Do not seek what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind. For all these things the nations of the world seek after, and your Father knows all these things shall be added unto you.” (Luke 12:29-31) God says we don’t need to be anxious about anything; we just need to pray about everything.
FEELING OF DEPRESSION: (a down and out feeling): Yes, it is easy for depression to set in. One thing happens after another, with no positive results, which causes you to really get down in your spirit. Depression hit Jim and me both, leaving us with the feeling of giving up. Jim had applied for one job after another, with no luck finding one. It seemed no one wanted to give him a chance to work. No job means no money to pay bills, no gas to look for a job and no means of buying the things we needed. It seemed we had no options left. We couldn’t call anyone to advice us what to do or for help because we did not have a phone. It seemed Heaven was like brass when we prayed, our requests were falling to the ground. God does not want us to be like that. In fact He wants us to have joy of the Lord to rise up in us and chase away the spirit of heaviness. “…Neither be ye sorry: for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” (Nehemiah 8:10).
FEELING OF HOPELESSNESS: Hopelessness is a slow killer that can soon affect your mind, body and soul. I believe in God but there are times flesh would rise up. I am not saying my faith had not gotten weaker, because it had. My physical eyes did not see the good things happening but instead they saw things getting worst. When I felt my flesh rise up, I would run to God for help. When we choose to put our hope in God, He will meet all our needs and take hopelessness away. No matter how bad things get in our lives, we can always place our hope in God. “Now faith is the substance of things hope for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 12:1)
FEELING OF FEAR: When the devil puts a feeling of fear in us, it takes our mind off of God. Fear wears us down, by worrying about things that may or may not happen. God does not want us to live in fear. Do whatever you can to stay close to God. When I thought about what was happening to us at the time, I would try to get my mind off of it. I love to work with the computer and music so I would keep my mind busy doing the things I love to do. Filling my mind with good thoughts caused fear to soon disappear. For God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7)
FEELING OF BEING DISSATISFIED: It is easy to focus on the negative and look for everything wrong in our lives. When we have constant unrest in our lives, because everything around us seems miserable, we develop an attitude of wanting things to be so much different, that we sacrifice our peace. Whenever we feel discouraged by our circumstances, remember that the apostle Paul said, “I have learned abased and I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11-13) It is possible to find contentment, rest, peace and joy in any situation.
FEELING OF BITTERNESS AND ANGER: I know that anger and bitterness can take hold of you and consume you because it happened to us. We had no money for anything, no transportion, and Jim had no job. Two things that really got to me, were asking people for help to get food to eat and to help us pay the light bill . The main thing was there was no compassion in people. I felt I was a nobody to them. What really made me mad was the fact that so-called Christians were treating other Christians that way. There was no compassion from anyone. ”WHERE WAS THE LOVE OF GOD?”
THE FEELING OF RESENTMENT: Resentment is another form of anger. We believed coming to South Fulton, TN. to take care of our grandsons, was the right thing. The question came to our minds “Why was all this bad happening to us?”
When you are hurt or when you are fearful and threatened of your security, then anger is the result. If you don’t deal properly with anger, if anger is allowed to continue in your life, if it is not dealt with, if you don’t make it an allie rather than a detriment and you hold on to anger then it becomes resentment. Resentment is keeping score on people who have hurt you with the intention someday of getting even, never releasing that person of the debt they owe, because they wronged you, they hurt you, they treated you unfairly. It will eat up the energy that you have for living life and for being the challenge of life and you become emotionally empty and you have nothing to give because of the power of resentment in your life. You hold on to a hurt that becomes hate, it becomes resentment. Resentment is the great destroyer of relationships.
The Bible says, we have to respond in love. If we respond in love, we are responding as mature believers.When we respond in love, love does not keep accounts. It does not remember that debt that is owed. It does not keep score of that person who has hurt you. If you don’t learn to love, resentment will build. Many times people come to say, I have no feelings for my husband or my wife. I am just dead on the inside as far as my feelings are concerned. I don’t hate them I just don’t feel anything. Well, that is exactly what resentment will do. If it is not dealt with, if it is not countered, if it is not treated with love, resentment will build until it kills the love that existed in you.
Why should we be anxious, angry, depressed, bitter, hopeless, dissatisfied or fearful? We all have or will experience these emotions in our lives.
Do not feel bad about having them but don’t live with them either! God will give us strength and understanding to resist them. In our distress, we can call on God and He will hear us. If we stop to see and try to understand the different possibilities for our suffering, it will help us overcome our pain and cause our faith to grow in the midst of it.