Have you ever felt abandoned? Have your circumstances led to spiritual isolation? Maybe someone in your life has died and you can’t hear God anymore because of the cacophony of grief ringing in your ears. You are not alone. David experienced feelings of isolation and abandonment. Read Psalm 22:1-2 where David cried, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” We are not certain as to the exact set of circumstances that led David to write this psalm, bit this man we affirm as a spiritual hero felt abandoned by God. 

He felt forsaken and in despair. He felt far away from God and from God’s salvation. He had cried out. He had called out. But he heard no answer and he found no rest.

We need these two verses. I’m so glad that when we read the Bible, we don’t find a bunch of successful people who have everything together. I’m glad that when we really read the Bible, we discover people that are broken, people that are stricken, people that are emotionally unstable, people that are hurting, people that are imperfect.

We need to admit our weaknesses and feelings of abandonment. We do ourselves no favors when we hide the truth about us from God. God already knows how you feel. He already knows the emotional turmoil building in your heart. He knows the sleepless nights brought on by panic and worry. He knows the internal fears about people and situations that haunt you. He knows the sorrows and pains that govern your emotional state. He knows.

Because he knows, admit your weakness and instability.

But know this, admitting your weaknesses and your turmoil and your sorrows does not mean that you surrender to them. Expressing your feelings of abandonment does not mean that you are abandoned.

Your feelings do not determine your reality.

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Read the rest of the Psalm. David affirmed God’s salvation. David foretold the salvation from the Messiah a 1000 years in the future. And David experienced God’s grace and mercy.

If we will listen, there are Christians all around the world who can give us insights into an enduring faith. For some Chinese pastors, the seminary of imprisonment is required before one can pastor a congregation. For Christians in Muslim nations, conversion means at least being abandoned and shamed by one’s family – possibly martyred.

While Western Christianity has not faced such open hostility, contemporary morals have shifted so as to be in direct opposition to clear biblical preaching.

In the latter part of his second letter to Timothy, Paul defended the authority of scripture, reminded Timothy of the opposition he was sure to face and commended him to preach the word. Paul’s admonitions are just as true today.

Those of us preaching and teaching the word will give an account before its Author as to the veracity and consistency of our preaching and teaching with the Word of God.

Earlier this year, I preached a series of sermons on the gospel and human sexuality. Some in our community heard about the series and before I even preached a sermon, they condemned it through social media. This experience reminded me that God’s Word has never been popular.

There will always be people to discount and dismiss the Bible.

Biblical ethics will always run counter to self-centered morality.

In that sense, the experience of Paul and Timothy under Roman cultural mores are little different than the experience of gospel preachers in today’s America. But we must not fail or falter.

For we will not answer to the culture. And we will not ultimately answer to our churches. But we will answer to the One who wrote the Bible.

And He is looking for preachers and teachers who endure angst, anger and persecution to communicate the truth of the gospel.

From 2 Timothy 3 and 4.

Sunday School Lesson for the Biblical Recorder originally published here.