Where Is God? Navigating difficulty in life when your faith is hanging by a thread.

Pastor Art Snow • May 23, 2022

Where Is God? Navigating difficulty in life when your faith is hanging by a thread. 

If you live long enough you will spend some time in the valley, St John of the Cross coined the phrase “The Dark Night of the Soul”  to describe this valley/desert experience. You know when the bottom drops out and your world collapses, when the props are kicked out from under you and you feel hopeless, when your faith is hanging by a thread. Well the good news is you still have a thread left !

A story from History

I would like to address this topic in three ways; a historic story, a personal story and a Biblical story. Let me begin with the historic story first. Many of you would know the song, “It Is Well With My Soul” written by Horatio Spafford. Spafford knew something about life’s unexpected challenges. He was a successful attorney and real estate investor who lost a fortune in the great Chicago fire of 1871. Around the same time, his beloved four-year-old son died of scarlet fever.

Thinking a vacation would do his family some good, he sent his wife and four daughters on a ship to England, planning to join them after he finished some pressing business at home. However, while crossing the Atlantic Ocean, the ship was involved in a terrible collision and sunk. More than 200 people lost their lives, including all four of Horatio Spafford’s precious daughters. His wife, Anna, survived the tragedy. Upon arriving in England, she sent a telegram to her husband that began: “Saved alone. What shall I do?”

Horatio immediately set sail for England. At one point during his voyage, the captain of the ship, aware of the tragedy that had struck the Spafford family, summoned Horatio to tell him that they were now passing over the spot where the shipwreck had occurred.

As Horatio thought about his daughters, words of comfort and hope filled his heart and mind. He wrote them down, and they have since become a well-beloved hymn:

When peace like a river, attendeth my way,

When sorrows like sea billows roll—

Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to know

It is well, it is well with my soul.

When this hymn writers faith was hanging by a thread he found God and  poured his grief into a song that has comforted many over the years. 

A story from my Life

Now allow me to tell you a personal story that is hard to tell without tears. Those of you who know me know that I have three adopted daughters. This story is about my daughter Danielle who is now 26 and who we have had since she was one day old, in fact because my wife is a nurse she was actually in the delivery room when Danielle was born. Danielle’s biological mother was from our neighborhood and had intended to abort her baby but we told her if she kept the baby we would help her raise the child or find a good home for her.

She decided to keep the baby and we were going to adopt her. The problem came in when the biological father met with us, he would not sign the required papers. So for the first three and a half years of Danielle’s life we had custody of her but did not have all the necessary paperwork signed. 

The problem arose when her biological mother decided to change her mind and wanted her baby back. The only parents Danielle had ever known was us, and now our family was threatened. We had to go to family court and the entire hearing lasted about 6 minutes when the Judge said, “Give her back.” Our world collapsed, and the next day we had to watch our little girl be dragged across the lawn by the Bio-Mom against her will. This happened on a Saturday afternoon and I had to preach the next morning. My sermon title was; “I don’t understand but I trust you.”

She was legally kidnapped for 21 days until we finally hired an attorney who told us that he would take our case, empty our bank account, and would probably still lose the case. But we we still had that thread of faith we were holding on to, so we pressed in and found God. After two and a half years in court we finally won the case and were granted full adoption of our daughter Danielle.

When the bottom drops out, never give up, look for the thread and hold on. 

A story from the Bible

Finally allow me to recount the Old Testament story from the book of 1 Kings chapter 20. King Ben-hadad the king of Aram sent a threatening letter to King Ahab king of Israel. In the letter he demanded all their gold all their silver and all of their beautiful wives and children as well. At first Ahab agreed to the terms, then his elders convinced him to fight instead. The odds were against them Israel’s camp looked anemic compared to the great army of Aram. 

The prophet came to King Ahab and assured him of their victory, so while King Ben-hadad and his officers were drinking in their tents Israel attacked them and won the battle. King Ben-hadads take on the loss was that Israel’s God was the God of the mountains since the battle took place in the high country. His strategy therefore was to wait until they could catch Israel in the valley and attack them there.

Following is the text that shows the outcome of the battle in the valley: 1 Kings 20:26-30

26 At the turn of the year, Ben-hadad mustered the Arameans and went up to Aphek to fight against Israel. 27 The sons of Israel were mustered and were provisioned and went to meet them; and the sons of Israel camped before them like two little flocks of goats, but the Arameans filled the country. 28 Then a man of God came near and spoke to the king of Israel and said, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Because the Arameans have said, “The Lord is a god of the mountains, but He is not a god of the valleys,” therefore I will give all this great multitude into your hand, and you shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” 29 So they camped one over against the other seven days. And on the seventh day the battle was joined, and the sons of Israel killed of the Arameans 100,000 foot soldiers in one day. 30 But the rest fled to Aphek into the city, and the wall fell on 27,000 men who were left. And Ben-hadad fled and came into the city into an inner chamber. 

So let the record show that our God is the God of both the mountains and the God of the valleys. The next time you face a valley in your life and you feel like you are only holding on by a thread, hold on, find God and find your victory. 

Pastor Art Snow | May 22, 2022

Edited and Adapted for Web Use by: Eric Muñoz Jr.