If you read this and you are under the age of 30 you may not understand, but think back to a time when you had to know somebody’s phone number to call them. You literally had to have it stored in your brain, pick up the phone, and dial the numbers. Still wondering what happened to the part of my brain that stored all those numbers, but…

On a more serious note, have you ever wondered if God lost your phone number?

You feel like you are in the driest, loneliest desert ever. You pray and don’t seem to be getting answers. You don’t feel God. You don’t hear God, even though you’re reading the Bible. He just seems completely silent.

With my health issues lately one of the things that I have dealt with is insomnia. And by insomnia, I mean several months of not sleeping well. Some nights I might get 2 hours if I’m lucky, some nights one hour, some nights five hours. I haven’t had more than 20 hours of sleep a week in months. It’s beyond exhuausting, and while we’re addressing the root cause of that right now, I start to beat myself up and question God at the same time when I can’t sleep.

Because I will pray, “Lord please just help me sleep.” And yet I am wide awake and utterly exhausted. And I know now that it’s related to long COVID and some deficiencies that I have as well as some other things that aren’t quite figured out yet, but it is definitely mainly physiological. However, somehow in my mind I had subscribed to the health and wealth gospel without realizing it. That if I prayed for God to do something and it didn’t happen then I must be doing something wrong. I didn’t spend enough time in the Bible that day, I didn’t spend enough time praying that day, or I committed a certain sin that day.

But God is a good father. A good father wants his child to feel good. He does not want his child to be sick or exhausted or struggling. And yet throughout my life, and a lot recently, I’ve had Christians pretty much say to me that God caused these things to happen in my life. The worst is when they say, “Maybe God has you awake to spend more time with Him or pray for someone else.”

Hmmmm… while I do pray a lot when I can’t sleep, and I do open my Bible as well some nights, I also know God knows He gave us rest/sleep for our bodies to heal and my body needs sleep, and He’s a good God. He doesn’t want his children going months without something they need for survival in this world.

We have to be careful when we try to get ultra spiritual and say things that really are not true. The sin of the world and the broken world we live in has caused these things to happen in my life. God allows them to happen, but he didn’t himself make them happen because he’s a good God. And as a good God and a good father he doesn’t make sin happen. And illness and struggle as a result of a broken and sinful world.

(John Eldredge talks about it here too. Here’s a quote from it: “A friend was suffering from a terrible flu; she said, “I sure hope I learn what God has for me in this, so I can get over it.” I didn’t want to be unkind, so I kept my mouth shut. But inside I thought, You think God made you sick!? There are others things at work in this world. Germs, for instance.)

As he mentioned, I’m not saying if you’re sick it’s because of your sin (though at times we can make choices that are unhealthy and make us sick), but I’m saying because of the sin in our world – such as the people who have destroyed our food chain with toxic chemicals and caused chronic illness – that someone’s sin that has caused that struggle. I do know that we have consequences for choices in our life, but it’s interesting to me that as Christians we are so quick to tell somebody they caused what’s going on in their life. Or that God caused it. Because that is not necessarily biblical or accurate. Because you can do everything right to take care of your health, and things still go wrong. You can also do wrong things and things go right – or seem to.

Here’s where all of this landed me lately. It’s landed me in recognizing the spiritual realm around us where we can’t even begin to imagine what is occurring. I look out in the world today and see how broken and destructive it is, and how so many have turned from God. Then we have this younger generation that is hungry for God. The things happening around the world that show we are in the end times and that Jesus is coming soon.

That means…

Satan. Is. Scared.

He knows the ending. He knows that he loses and he’s running out of time to keep people out of heaven. He is attacking everyone he can. The amount of Christians that I know right now who are strong believers who are suffering in some way is astounding. That’s not a coincidence at all.

I want to encourage you today that if you’re going through something and you’re praying and you feel like God lost your phone number, I want you to take heart. Because he hasn’t. He still hears you. We’re told he catches our tears in a bottle (Psalm 56:8).

I’m going to encourage you to keep praising him in the storm. Keep praying for the miracle.  Keep praying for his deliverance, but keep praising him in the storm and letting him know that even if he doesn’t answer that prayer you know your hope is in him alone and you will keep praising him.

Because friends there’s power in worship and there is power in standing firm and holding strong to Jesus. Don’t subscribe to the health and wealth gospel or any gospel other than Jesus died for your sins. He rose again, and if you believe that in your heart and you trust him as your savior and Lord of your life, you don’t have to do one other single thing to be with him in heaven.

As our church is talking about right now…

Jesus plus nothing. You cannot add anything to Jesus and what he did. What he did is enough. And when you begin to question that and you begin to have the doubts like I mentioned have been a struggle for me lately, I want you to come back and pray. Lord help my unbelief. Lord help me stay and remain in you. Help me abide in you and strengthen me, comfort me, stay with me in this fire as you stayed with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. I know you may not deliver me from this but you are with me so don’t let me face this alone. Make it well with my soul. I need a peace that only heaven knows, and in that I find my hope.

I pray this song blesses you today  – I’ve hade it on repeat lately.

“Make it Well” by Mercy Me

“Make it well with my soul
Don’t let me face this loneliness alone
Make it well with my soul
I need a peace that only heaven knows
Jesus could you please
Just sit and cry with me
Till I can sing
Till I can sing

[Chorus]
It is well with my soul
It is well with my soul
Whatever my lot
You are still my God
It is well
It is well with my soul

[Verse 2]
Make it well with my soul
When the storm is raging please don’t let me go
Oh voice that calms the sea
Keep whispering to me
So I can sing
So I can sing”

© 2026 All Rights Reserved. Susan M. Clabaugh with Encouragement in Daily Living LLC