where'd He go

                After being baptized, Jesus was led to the desert by the Spirit too fast for forty days and night.  Satan came to Him and tempted Him with every possible thing.  But with every temptation Jesus had a reason not to fall for the tricks of Satan.  He held strong on the word of God and knew the season would come to an end soon.  Where was God while His son was fighting off the temptations of Satan?  Did He just leave Him alone to teach Him a lesson?

                Just as Jesus had to go through His season of temptation, we all have seasons that Satan throws everything at us.  He makes sure that we struggle to deal with normal day to day life or he shows us a reward for cutting corners.  Satan doesn’t want us to stay faithful to God.  And when we go through these seasons, we fill very distant from God.  We allow ourselves to think that He no longer loves us or we don’t need Him.  We fall into the spiritual desert.  Everywhere that we look is just empty space with no hope for recovery.  So where did God go?

                Why would God allow us to go through the times of hopelessness?  Why would a loving God become distant from His children?  Should He not rescue us from the depths of despair we find ourselves in at times?  Why would He allow Satan to tempt us in ways that would drive a wedge between Him and His children?  These questions really go back to the simple question of where’d He go?

                Answering the simple question of where’d He go is a complicated process.  Because when you dig deep into the questions mentioned above, you will find that God never left us.  He has always been right there waiting on us to call out to Him.  He doesn’t want us to have times of hopelessness, but will allow us to fall so we have to look to Him to recover.  Satan will always be there when we allow our thinking to stray away from the Grace of God.  He is a predator in the dark lurking and stalking us.  His only desire is to drive the wedge between us and God.  Those temptations, good and bad, have nothing to do with us; they are intended to hurt God.  This is why we have to remember that God is always right beside us and is waiting for us to call on His name.  Deuteronomy 31:8 gives us the answer to the question of where’d he go.  It states, “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 discouraged."  So God is always there even when we are going through the deserts of life.

                So my original question of where’d He go needs to be restated as Where’d he Go?  God never left us alone, we walked away from Him.  So really we allowed ourselves to be lost in the world and not maintain our focus on God.  We always have the free choice to serve a mighty God and we need to stay grounded in His Word.  The seasons of hurt and despair will come and we will be angry at God for what we are going through, but remember He is always there when we call out His name and will wrap His loving arms around us.  He is closer than a brother when we allow Him to come into our deepest parts.  God will not leave us even when we think that all hope is lost.  We are the ones that leave God.  So I ask again, Where’d he Go?

                Lord, I pray right now for anyone that is going through a season of dry spirit.  I pray that You will invade their thoughts with an overwhelming feeling of love and acceptance.  I know that You can change how we feel because You changed my feeling of hopelessness.  You are always with us and I pray that You make yourself known to anyone that Satan is tempting right now.  In Your Holy name I pray, Amen