Maybe at one point in your life you thought that everything that could go wrong had gone wrong. Maybe you’re going through something like that right now. And you’ve called out to God, but he doesn’t seem to be there. Your prayers—as far as you can tell—haven’t been answered. Maybe you’ve even thought, “Lord, Jesus, if I could just sense your presence with me, that would be enough.”
But there’s nothing. No comfort. No obvious help. And maybe your faith is beginning to waver.
God wants to give you comfort. His word says that he’s near to all those who call upon him in truth. He’s present with his people through the Holy Spirit. There are so many times in the Scriptures where God’s people cry out to him and experience comfort and deliverance. In Psalm 18:6, the psalmist says, “In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry came to him and reached his ears.”
When you call upon the name of the Lord, even in the midst of despair, your prayer reaches his temple. He hears it, and he comforts his people. Sometimes, that comfort comes through a sense of God’s presence. At other times, the Lord comforts us through his people, brothers and sisters in Christ who can encourage us. We see this in 2 Corinthians 1:3, where the apostle Paul says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”
The God that we serve—the God that we know—is the God of all comfort. He comforts us so that we might be able to comfort each other. In 2 Corinthians 7:5, Paul talks about a time when he experienced this comfort through others in the body of Christ: “For even when we came into Macedonia, our bodies had no rest. But we were afflicted at every turn, fighting without and fear within. But God, who comforted us by the coming of Titus.”
In other words, God used Titus to comfort Paul. If you don’t feel God’s comfort right now, it may be because he wants to use the people around you—especially in your local church—to comfort you and say, “Hey, God is still there. When we cry out to him, he hears us. He hears you, and he’s near to the brokenhearted.” If you’re not in a church, that may be a reason why you’re not experiencing his comfort. The local church is one of the main ways God wants you to experience his presence and goodness.
When we turn to the Lord, he hears us. We may not always feel like he’s near or see him giving exactly what we asked for. But when we cling to him by faith, we can be sure of his grace and mercy toward us.
If you’re suffering right now, I hope you’ll know that the Lord hears your prayers when you come to him through Jesus. He’s there, and he’s merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love to all who call upon him. So, continue to call on the name of the Lord.
This article is part of our Frequently Asked Questions series. Listen to Pastor Adriel answer this question on Core Radio here.
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Core Questions
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How Can God Use All Things for Our Good?, What is Prayer?, How Do I Choose a Church?
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10 Ways God Reveals Himself as Our Father, 8 Things Everyone Should Know about the Church
