That experience of being abandoned by God has to be shared and undergone, though to an incomparably lesser degree, by every Christian soul.  There has to come at one time or another, the time of testing when the whole of religion becomes empty and dead; when God himself seems infinitely remote from us and our daily life; when we pray but there is “…no voice, no answer, and no response” (NRSV, 1 Kings 18:29).

Our minds become filled with torturing doubts, possibly about the very existence of God, certainly about his personal care for us.  He is God, yes; but what does that matter if he is no longer my God?  Can it be that religion is a gigantic delusion, and that our feelings of abandonment are a belated awakening to cold reality?

For at such a time of spiritual dereliction, our feelings seem to belie all that we have ever been taught about God’s concern for his own.  Where then is the Father’s love; the comfort and tenderness of the Good Shepherd; the joy and peace bestowed by the Holy Spirit?

The love and care of God are there all the time, for they are part of his very nature and being.  What has happened at such a time is that God has withdrawn from us the awareness of his presence so that we no longer have the sense of being supported by him.