In my essay “Can God be trusted?” I discussed David’s Psalm 22, where he starts off imploring:
1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
Why are you so far from saving me,
so far from my cries of anguish?
2 My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
by night, but I find no rest.
In verses 23-24 we see how David’s trust in God is manifested, even while he remains afflicted:
23 You who fear the Lord, praise him!
All you descendants of Jacob, honor him!
Revere him, all you descendants of Israel!
24 For he has not despised or scorned
the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him
but has listened to his cry for help.
This is what a long and deep trust in God looks like: the experience of walking close to God your entire life builds a strong trust in his love, goodness, and mercy, so that going through the crucible of suffering still results in praising God for His listening to your current cry for help. Trust in God is justified, even when you might not understand His ways or His plan for our life or see the reward in the here and now. God can be trusted to fulfill his purpose and plan for our life, according to His infinite wisdom and lovingkindness.
God is there even in the worst heat of your crucible. As Betsie Ten Boom said in these last words to her sister Corrie in a Nazi prison camp: "There is no pit so deep that God’s love is not deeper still."
My experience was seeing God’s providence under severe adversity, resulting in a
steadfast trust in Him keeping his promises to always be there with me. This maturation of faith really does mean you have no fear of bad news because your trust in His presence is always confirmed.
