Matthew 27:46 About three o’clock, Jesus shouted, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Have you ever felt forsaken by God? Most of us have. If so, we are in good company.

The Son of God, Himself God, somehow in the mystery of the Trinity, was also forsaken by the Father, Who is God. We accept Jesus being forsaken for we understand it was the process by which He took upon Himself all of our sins, all of the sins of humanity from and for all time, so that we could be forgiven for all time for all the evil we have ever done.

God, the perfect One, was forsaken so that the imperfect could be reconciled to the Father. If God was forsaken should we not also at least feel the same way on occasion?

TV Christianity promotes a God loves you and wants to bless you no matter what image of God but that is not the reality the Bible portrays. All of the great saints in the Bible suffered at various times.

When we see God as only doing us good then we struggle with the evil that occurs in our world. If we see ourselves as servants of God to be sacrificed for His purposes then we see the evil in our world as part of the process necessary for glorifying Him and being formed into His image.

We all want to be the rich and famous person that says, ‘look what God has done for me.’ The Savior was the broken and sacrificed person Who said, ‘look what God has done for you.’ So too our suffering should be used to draw people to the God Who comforts and sustains us through our trials while promising a future without trials.

Everyone suffers in this world because this world suffers under the curse of sin. God has not forsaken us or the world just as He never forsook His Son, at least not for long.

Rather God works through our suffering to reveal our need for Him and for us to reveal Him to a world starved for hope and help in their suffering without Him.