Reflections From the Psalms
LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me. Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah. But thou, O LORD, art a shield for me; my glory, and the lifter up of mine head. (Ps. 3:1-2)
If Christ is in us, then we have two natures — we are joined to the Lord and one spirit with Him. (I Cor. 6:17) This is the new creation in Christ. But there also remains all that is outside of that union with Christ — natural man. Many of us, even after we are saved, continue to live from out of, and on the basis of, our natural man. We try to live as Christians. And we don’t realize what we are doing.
Often, the trial of faith is used by God to set us free from a Christian life based on natural religious man so that we might live by faith from out of Jesus Christ. God will seek to draw us out of ourselves by allowing us to encounter that which is too much for our natural man — indeed, too much for natural RELIGIOUS man. He wants to expose us as insufficient so that we will turn to faith in His Son.
This is often what is happening, when, despite all of our prayer, we cannot see or sense God. It is NOT that God is indifferent or hiding from us. Rather, He is trying to show us the Truth — that we have been relying on our natural man — such as feelings or mere brain power. Thus, as long as we try to fellowship with God on the basis of our natural man we will meet emptiness. Again — this is not something God is making happen. It is the Truth happening — we are discovering the utter futility of trying to drag down God into our situation through natural religious means.
God is seeking to bring us into the Truth of Jesus Christ. There are always going to be, “many voices,” that say, “There is no help for you in God.” Our feelings may say this. Our fears. Our thinking. And certainly, circumstances will suggest to us that God is indifferent to us. Yet no matter what voice is trying to convince us that there is no help from God, they are lies. They are lies because if we are IN CHRIST there is never a time when there is no help for us in God. It is impossible for God to be indifferent to any person. God is allowing this trauma to reveal in us the Truth that Jesus Christ in us is our only shield and the only, “lifter of our head.”