God Hides Himself

God is a "God who hides himself" (Isaiah 45:15) and sometimes He sends us His answers while He remains behind the scenes. The answer He sends may not look as if He is in it at all.

I recall one of my experiences of God hiding Himself. Hours of prayer and preparation had gone into a talk I was to give. I was confident the Lord would help. But as I began to speak, I felt exceptionally uninspired. The longer I spoke, the deader I felt. By the time I finished, I felt more like dashing out a back door in tears than facing the people. When I saw there was no back door, I thought of Wendy Bagwell's comment when he saw people handling snakes in a church service and he looked for a back door. Finding none, he said to himself, "I wonder where they want one."

After my presentation, although people spoke of help they had received, I felt a failure. Several days later I prayed, "Lord, I praise You for helping me in exactly the way You did. Your help was perfect." Even though I couldn't see at that point how His help had been perfect, I had believed His promises before I spoke, and I now believed that He had kept each one. Faith includes believing that God did what I trusted Him to do even though I can not see results. When I praised Him for His perfect faithfulness, the load of having failed lifted. 

Dear Jesus, help me to praise You in the times I see Your faithfulness as well as the times You hide Yourself. 

"I call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I am saved from my enemies" (2 Samuel 22:4).