Experiencing God's Presence #188

Experiencing God's Presence #188

How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

Psalm 13:1, NIV

“Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.” Those words from a hymn by William Cowper describe how many of us feel on any given day. There are times when God gives a vision or a promise, attends to it with His Presence and witness and confirmations, and then flees the scene. Or so it seems. He did it with Joseph’s dreams and with David’s anointing. Either could have questioned the revelation in those long years when circumstances seemed to mock and God seemed painfully absent. Joseph sat in prison while holding a vision of his brothers bowing before him, and David hid from Saul in caves while holding a vision of the throne. All the while, God’s “frowning providence” was hiding His pleasure in them both.

Faith is the evidence of “things we cannot see,” according to Hebrews 11:1. If we could see them, we wouldn’t be employing faith. So why are we surprised when God leads us down roads on which the fulfillment of His promise is invisible? If He is pleased with faith, and if faith is required to receive a promise, then the evidence of the promise has to hide for a season. Circumstances must contradict it. And we must hold on in assurance that what God has spoken is true.

We seek the Presence of God in every situation, but don’t be surprised when He hides His face for a time. We may go through trials that mock our faith, but God is smiling behind those situations. He is pleased with our endurance and our insistence on His trustworthiness. The answer to the psalmist’s question—“How long will you hide your face from me?”—is “not forever.” His absence is for a moment, but His Presence is eternal.

Lord, I don’t want to be presumptuous, but unless You clearly direct otherwise, I choose to hang on to what I believe You have said. No matter what my circumstances say, I know You smile at me.