Am I Lost?

Am I lost? People of faith often go through times like this. We feel that God is so far away that He doesn’t even know we exist, and we feel lost without Him. For some (like me) the intensity of emotion in feeling lost is nearly overwhelming. We try to ‘do the right thing,’ but any attempts at encouraging ourselves can be swept away by grief. Where does this type of grief or feeling of being lost come from? It comes from the heart. It can happen when we are at a point in our lives which causes some introspection. Many times, when we follow the path this introspection takes us, we come face to face with the reality of who we are as compared with God. He is holy; we are not. He is righteous; we are not. He is powerful; we are not. The comparison between Who He is and who we are is stark, drastic and immeasurable. No wonder we feel this way!

Ps 31:9-10

Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I am in trouble; my eye wastes away with grief, yes, my soul and my body! For my life is spent with grief, and my years with sighing;
My strength fails because of my iniquity, and my bones waste away.

The author of the Psalm seems to be at this point in his life – lost. He realizes that he is completely unworthy of the love and attention of the Lord. This realization is actually a defining moment in his life. He can allow the guilt and shame he feels to drive him away from God, or he can allow this feeling to approach God in a renewed way. This is a godly response to the realization that we are lost without Him, and the action of turning toward God (because of this feeling of helplessness) is called repentance. It is a renewal of our commitment to trust and believe in what God has said. If we feel the way the writer of the Psalm felt, then we have a choice. We can submit ourselves to the Lord or we can allow those feelings to drag us away from Him – the choice is ours to make. Which choice will we make? The right choice is the choice of faith!

Ps 31:14-16

But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.”  My times are in Your hand; deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.