Where Are You God          .  .  .  I’m Waiting! By Rev. James E. Crigger      How many times have we asked ourselves this question?  More to the point, how many times have we felt guilty for asking it?    There are so many trials that we face daily.  As they come and go, we learn to deal with them, well, most of them.  Inevitably, there will be trials in which we feel powerless to come with alone.     We turn to God and beg Him for help and deliverance from our trials.  We pray, and then we wait and wait, and wait, endlessly it seems.

After a while, we ask ourselves: “Is God really listening?  Where is my answer”?  In chapter 1 of the book of James, 3rd verse, we read: “The trying of your faith bringeth patience”.  We sure must have a lot of patience by now, right!  But still no answer.  Why God?    It is easy to question God in these times, but not easy to wait upon Him.  Daniel had to wait for twenty-one days for an answer to his prayer.  When the answer came, the angel told Daniel that God heard his prayer and sent an answer on the first day but the angel was kept busy fighting Satan (The King of Persia), and God sent another angel to fight in the first angels place while he continued on to give Daniel his answer.  You can find this story in the 10th chapter of Daniel. Job, I’m sure, must have wondered why all of his trials came against him when he had done nothing wrong.  But, through it all, Job continued to hold true to his trust and faith in God.  Job even defends God to his so-called friends in the 9th chapter of Job.    In the middle of our trials, there is not much any one can say to us.  Our friends seem as helpful as Job’s friends were.  There are times when it seems as if God has even turned His back on us, but we must somehow find the strength to stand in our faith in God as Job did.    God is God!  Who are we, the creation, to doubt or question God, the creator?  Questioning or doubting God will not change His love for us, but it could change our love for Him.  That’s just what Satan is hoping for.    Peter had doubts as well as fears when he denied Christ.  But Peter went on to become a strong and useful servant of God, and perhaps, the  most faithful of the disciples.  More than once, God delivered Peter from harm by sending angels to deliver him.    God does not deal in time as we do.  God does not answer in the ways we feel that He should, but HE DOES ANSWER!    Instead of doubt, we must learn to praise Him in ALL things.  Instead of questions, we must know that “all things work together for good to them that love God” Romans 8:28.    Instead of questioning God, we should, instead, learn to ask ourselves these questions:   CONTINUE TO NEXT PAGE!