How long, LORD? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
Psalm 13:1

A few weeks ago, I was sitting in my office when I noticed a young man sitting outside my window. He was alone, slumped over as he sat on the stone bench in the covered entrance of the church. I went outside to see what he was doing. “Can I help you?” I asked. He looked up at me. I could see the trouble in his eyes. He began to tell me that he was out walking and as he was passing by the church he felt like he needed to come here. I sat down next to him listening. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” he explained. “I’m having doubts about my faith,” he said. I asked him to tell me more about what he was experiencing. I listened as tears began to roll down his face. He lived with his grandmother who was ill and dying. He said he had prayed for healing and was at a loss at what else to do.
Have you ever felt this way in your life? Maybe it wasn’t that you doubted God, but maybe you doubted yourself. Perhaps there was a time you felt as if your prayers weren’t working or that God wasn’t listening. I have. I was about my young friends age when I went through a time of wondering why. I remember thinking to myself, “if only I had prayed harder, longer; then…” I wish I could say that I had a quick and pain free solution for those going through these times of spiritual turmoil. In my experience, that’s not how God usually works. Even the Apostle Paul went through times of serious struggle. He does not say what his “thorn” was but that it “tormented” him (2 Cor. 12:7). He repeatedly begged God to take it away. That’s not what happened. Paul shares, “he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness’” (2 Cor. 12:9). The grace of God is stronger than we may realize. Not only does it save us from our sins, but also it teaches us to rely on the power of God rather than our circumstances. It is a peace that surpasses our understanding. Christ is our comfort through the thorns.