My God, My God, Why?

Have you ever had something happen in life where you just had to ask why? Why does God answer some prayers the way we want Him to and others not? Why do good things happen to bad people? There are so many questions in life that just simply don’t have clear cut answers.

Today as we look at Jesus “Famous Last Words” from the cross, I want to look at the words He asked the Father: (Matt. 27:45-46) "My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?"

If you are going through a hard time right now, a time when things seem insurmountable, there may not be any simply answers for it. We often have people tell us the reasons we are going through something, and though well meaning, their words can be piercing. Jesus was under attack from Satan from the moment of His birth and yet we never see Him complaining about it. Jesus became sin for us on the cross, the Bible says that the Father withdrew His presence from Jesus because of this, it became dark on the earth. At that moment Jesus cried out, “my God, my God why have you abandoned me?”

It’s easy to have faith when everything is going our way and the sun is shining. It is another thing entirely to have faith in the darkness and when there are things going on in our lives that we don’t understand and we are asking why.

The truth is we only see part of the story, we only see our perspective, but we serve a God who sees all and knows all. We fail to see and understand His perspective. When Jesus cried those words from the cross He fulfilled the prophecy in Psalm 22. As God the Father looked on His heart must have broken with the sacrifice of His only son, yet it was the most selfless, loving moment in all of history. He loves each of us so much that He allowed the cross to happen.

God loves us so much that when we ask “why”, He replies, “because I love you.” Jesus cry from the cross offers us forgiveness. I Peter 2:24 says that He (Jesus) himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; and by his wounds, by his suffering, by his stripes, we have been healed.”

Because of the cross, because of Jesus cry of being forsaken, we have the promise of God never forsaking or leaving us. We have the promise that nothing can separate us from His love. In the middle of pain some of us will get angry at God and reject Him, others, even with questions of why, will recognize God’s presence and know that He is all we need.

Make it your prayer today that regardless of what you are going through, regardless of all the “why” questions, that you will experience His presence and love in a fresh new way and that you will always trust Him.