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Wednesday evening was one of those days. You know the kind I’m referring to, right? Where everything (and I mean everything) seems to go wrong from sunrise to sunset? First, it was a spoiled breakfast. Then, my dog seemed to take a century to go to the bathroom despite negative wind chills and rapidly falling snow. By the afternoon, I’d extinguished 12 work fires, 52 text messages, and 4 emotional breakdowns. That evening, I crumbled under the weight of my circumstances. How long, O Lord? my soul cried out. Have you been here, too?
After sending a quick text to my husband that “he needed to get home ASAP so I could have a breakdown,” I crawled into the shower and wept. As I did, the words of Psalm 13 seemed to bubble out of my chest:
“How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart? How long will my enemy triumph over me? Look on me and answer, Lord my God. Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death, and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,” and my foes will rejoice when I fall. But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation. I will sing the Lord’s praise, for he has been good to me” (NIV).
Looking back on that Wednesday, it was a terribly awful, very bad, not good day. But it was probably nothing compared to the suffering David experienced in the Psalms. I don’t say this to invalidate you or my experiences, but simply to give some perspective.
When Life Doesn’t Feel Good
David knew what it was like to live a life that didn’t always feel good. He had enemies, faced a giant, and committed adultery. Yet the Scriptures tell us he was a man after God’s own heart. Why? Because David knew how to be honest with God in pain, while still choosing to trust. And he learned to see that God’s goodness remains, even when life feels anything but good.
Sometimes, life is hard because we make it hard. We try to operate outside of the way God intended us to live. But other times, life is hard because we live in a broken and fallen world. David experienced both of these scenarios.
When we’re told “ God is good” amidst our suffering, there’s tension, right? That comment can feel like a slap in the face to our wounds. Perhaps our current reality is so painful, confusing, or unfair that it seems unrealistic to say, “God is good.” Here’s the truth: Psalm 13 is a model for faith that doesn’t deny suffering, but acknowledges who God is amidst it. And that key distinction makes all the difference. Because we aren’t operating out of a place of ignorance, but reality. If you want to learn to pray this way, here are 3 steps to follow.