This quote brings two things to mind at first glance. The first is that beneath all of the hurt lies a feeling of guilt as if somewhere we missed the message of God and the present struggle is of our own making. This is particularly true for Christians who have suffered for long periods of time and watch literally hundreds of prayers appear to hang on the rafters and fall to the floor rather than continue their lofty flight into the highest heavens and appear before the throne of grace of our Father. I call such times "Silent Skies." I am not used to a God who isn't tangibly active in my life and prayer that doesn't bring answers in miraculous ways. Nonetheless there are times when there seems to be no answer. At such times it is but human to begin to look within and doubt self or God, or in longer sufferings, both. We begin to feel that our circumstances are unique and there is none other that can even begin to understand what we have and are going through. We isolate ourselves! Please listen, this isn’t an attempt to trivialize your hurt and problems, you are not alone, and in this regard you are not unique. True we all may sink to a different place in the mire of life, but the emotions and the techniques to climb back onto the horse are the same. It has nothing to do with your salvation, and God is in the hurt. It has a purpose to God, and trusting Him is the only answer. In this trust we know this too shall pass. At the moment of deepest pain I know of no human being who can believe this and embrace it fully. This includes our Lord who in the final moments also cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"

Second, while on the outside we may say we had no choice and thus no responsibility in the events that have led us into this dark wilderness area, to a person we begin to play the "What If Game" and evaluate every word and action we took before, during, and even after the event. Searching to see if we are actually at fault, or at least there was some sin involved and we are being punished this way by God. Stop and consider Job. What did Job do to invite the removal of the protective hand of God? What part did Job have to do with the severity of the events which changed his life so drastically? Consider the added weight of "friends which placed the whole in Job’s hand so to speak and gave bad advice. The more things change, the more they remain the same. This monotony or sameness is a real killer when we are struggling in the darkness under silent skies. To a person self guilt will creep in, no matter what the real facts are, nor what we did or did not do, since God is perfect, the believer often more so than the unbeliever will turn on self as being the problem seeking the lesson that God is trying to teach them, or humbly accept the hand of God in chastisement.

Recognize the attack of the devil in your life. Satan is a real being created by God. He is created, that is he is not everywhere present, does not have all knowledge, or any of the other "omni" attributes of God. God is infinite and His ways past finding out. Satan is created and finite, we can know our enemy and his ways. One of the hall marks of the satanic attack is seen in the opening verses of Job where one life shattering event after another crashes head on into our world and all seems to be lost. From such a prolonged and continuos attack even the saint is left in the darkness all but denying God exists or there is any hope.

How do we begin to recognize and battle the evil actions and intent of the devil? First is to prove that the battle in your mind isn’t with itself, but has an outside influence pushing the buttons. Put a pad and pencil in your pocket as you go about your day whatever it may be. Set a timer to sound every thirty minutes. When the timer sounds write down the thought that is on top at the moment. Do this as subconsciously as possible. If you have to pause and try to remember what you were thinking when the timer sounded the usefulness of the entry will decrease.

When you have twenty or more entries sit down and examine the list. Do not study the list before it is completed. Just make the entries as the timer sounds.

First find all the duplicate entries and rewrite it on a fresh paper with the number of times it appears compared to the total number of entries like this: "I am alone and unworthy. 4/35."